A Place to call Home
by Inuismyhomeboi
Summary: Sakura is a young orphan after a tragic accident killing her mother. After fleeing from the orphanage that served more so as a prison, how will she take to life on the harsh streets of New York? SS, ET.[Sakura POV]
1. prolouge

**Hey all! New Story time! Woo! Anyways, this story's been eatin' at me for a couple of days now and I wanna get it out and see if it flies. Um, Is a CCS story(I've been writing a lot of those lately…) I hope it works, I really think it's a good idea. So yea. Anyways, hope you guys like it!**

**Disclaimer: Ok, here we go. I don't own CCS…if I did, id give Tomoyo a better voice actor… But no, CLAMP owns it, how sad. Huzzah for clamp! Anyway, on with the story!**

**Summary: Sakura is a young orphan after a tragic accident killing her mother. After fleeing from the orphanage that served more so as a prison, how will she take to life on the harsh streets of New York? SS, ET.**

**A Place to call Home**

_Kirralle Hazayaki_

**_PROLOUGE_**

We had to come to America when daddy died. Mommy said that there was nothing for us in Japan,

that we'd have a better life in America. So we packed up most of our more valuable things and took

the money dad left us, and we got on a ship. The ship was pretty enormous, there were a lot of

people on board from beggars who won their tickets by a lucky hand a poker, to the rich and snooty

people who considered it a pleasure cruise, and everywhere in between. That's were we fell in. The

'Everywhere in between' category. We weren't rich or famous, but we weren't poor beggar-people

either, so I suppose that was a plus.

Everyone marveled at the ship. They were awestruck at the size of it, and the power of it, and the

fact that they said it was unsinkable…well, that's what they said about the last 'unsinkable ship'. And

look where it got over 1,500 people, Dead! That's where it got 'um. And this ship was no

different…It's boiler room one day decided to spontaneously combust…sending the ship and five

hundred some people to a watery grave. One of those five hundred some people being my mother. I

was unfortunate enough to be weaseled on to a life boat before I could have any time to do anything

about it. So all of my belongings, all of daddy's money he left us and my mother…the most important

thing in the world to me, they all sank like a lead balloon. And I found myself two weeks later in an

orphanage in New York city. I was five years old, with nothing to my name… but my name. That's

all I had was a name and some pretty horrible engrish. I suppose that the couple years that my

mother made me learn English paid off, I could understand what the people around me were saying

and I could come up with some sort of response when I needed to, but otherwise, I kept to myself. I

sat in a corner and watched all the other kids play during recess, I said the required prayers at meals

silently as possible for me so no one would consider glancing my way. After all, what kid would want

to befriend a silly little Japanese girl with abnormally colored eyes?

The Headmistress of the Orphanage/schoolhouse was a mean old bat. Her hair was done up in an

unreasonably large bee-hive hair-do, she had more wrinkles than even the most intelligent

mathematicians could count and she wreaked of cheap perfume. Her name was Lady Casnoose…a

widow after her husband committed suicide. Most of the kids could see why though. She was a

frightening thing, with her makeup on five layers too thick and a rear end the size of a small freight

train…which was how she later earned the nickname Lady Caboose, but that was only used under

much secrecy or whenever the others could get away with calling her that. I was making my way to

my room one afternoon when I was about six when I heard the Headmistress talking rather brashly to

one of the co-founders of the orphanage. She was complaining that "they had to find a way to get the

little Japanese girl out of here or else shell never get adopted after she turns eight and we'll have to

keep her till we can kick her butt outta here when she's sixteen" That was my first encounter with the

real world. My second encounter with the maliciousness of the real world was on my eighth birthday. It wasn't a celebrated thing, I got a small cupcake with half of the frosting swiped off by one of my

more gluttonous roommates, and a small card 'wishing me a happy birthday, from the janitorial staff'.

Well, at least the janitorial staff cared. But I digress, I overheard Lady Caboose grumbling once more

about how my presence was a bother and an annoyance to her. She was bickering about keeping me

and my smug attitude here until I was sixteen, and that didn't sit well with her overly rounded

highness. So I decided to run. Nobody in that horrible place was going to miss me. In fact, I'm not

even sure if they'd care if I left. Which settled matters for me even more. I grabbed a small brown

suitcase and stuffed it full of clothes, a blanket and pillow, and a toothbrush and toothpaste, because

if I had anything that would keep me tied to some sort of sanity, it would be personal hygiene to the

highest level I could manage. I left at about midnight the same night, slipping out through the back

door just behind the kitchen. The door usually provided the cooks a quick getaway for a smoke

session or a drink or two, which would explain the reason why half of our meals were either

undercooked mush or charcoal enriched.

I stayed on school grounds that night, sleeping in the back half of the school/orphanage which they

never converted from the jailhouse it used to be. Which, when thinking about it, its kind of creepy…a

jail where a bunch of icky thieves and murderers were held, now holding a bunch of not so innocent

minors.

By morning, The Portly Princess of Torture herself had staged a little search party to make it look

like that had in fact cared where I had gotten off to. But around noon, she called it all off and I was

free to make my escape, which had sounded like a much better idea thinking about it than actually

doing it. But it was far to late by then, seeing as I was already half a block away from the orphanage.

It was about two weeks after I had ran when I got the hang of street life. It was actually very

simple. One: look cute, not hard for an eight year old. Two: beg sweetly, hey, that's what we little

kids do, we beg, and three: If the begging and looking cute as a button doesn't work too well, swipe

what you can and high tail it outta there. However the swiping and high tailing doesn't always work to

your advantage. Like this time in particular. I had swiped some bread and was whizzing my way

along Broadway when I ran head first into one of the more upper cut people, falling straight onto my

butt and losing my bread to a bunch of angry pigeons. But I've heard that with every bad thing comes

something good. And with that bad thing came_ him_. He saw me get plowed down by the snoot in the

poofy dress and laughed heartily before smiling and helping me up. His name was Syaoran Li. Pretty

uncommon name for a New Yorker, but I didn't complain, seeing as he got me off my butt and

handed me some of his submarine sandwich he pilfered off of the street vendor a few steps the other

way. It turned out that this Syaoran kid, though I shouldn't call him a kid since he's two years older

than I am, had a group of vagabond orphan kids, who were all out right now attempting to find some

dinner to bring back to their base, which was just a run down bridge that ran over a small creek with

a large black tarp affixed to both ends, making a little hideaway for a bunch of kids that the fuzz

wouldn't spare a second glance at.

I was Eight and a Half years old then, and that was how I met the guy who came to be my best

friend. Not only that, he became the guy that I would eventually love unconditionally and would

probably jump off a bridge for… not that he'd ever ask me to jump off a bridge…but you get the

point I think.

* * *

**_Well, that's the prolouge…hope you liked it!! Please review, cause if you don't, than I _**

**_don't know if I should continue. My other stories will be updated fairly soon, I need a _**

**_paragraph or two more before I can upload them, so they'll be up and ready soon. I was _**

**_going to promise myself no more new stories till I at least finished Never Let Go, but I _**

**_reallllyyyyy needed to get this one out there, its been eating at my brain slowly for quite a _**

**_few days and I wanted to get it out there and see what people would think… Soo, what do _**

**_you think? Please review and comment! No flames though, them things are pointless and a _**

**_waste of both mine and your time…so lets refrain from flaming shall we? Other than that, _**

**_I think that's it. So until next time, wherever next time is…_**

**_Ja Ne!!_**


	2. Chapter 1: Street Rats and Mice

Chapter one: Street Rats and Mice 

There was a certain established ranking among Syaoran's little group thing. Syaoran was

obviously the leader, I noticed, because they all reported to him come meal time or whenever

they found some news worth sharing. Eriol Hiiragizawa, who was a year older than me, ranked in

second in command. Syaoran and him usually got the better parts of the food they ran down.

Takashi Yamazaki ranked in third. He had an attitude problem and a big mouth, but was one of

Syaoran's good friends, so they couldn't rightly kick him out. Tomoyo Daidouji fell in at fourth,

the only reason that she stayed in the little group was because Eriol thought she was cute. She

was my age and had a voice that sounded like nails on a chalk board, but she was nice enough.

Then there was me, fifth place, the minority if you will. I got whatever food the rest of them didn't

eat and the more rocky part of the land under the bridge to sleep on. I shouldn't really complain

because at least I got to eat and sleep somewhere, but my back hurt most nights and I seldom

got enough to eat. I suppose our lack of food grows on you because after a few weeks, I wasn't

so hungry as I normally was and I was considerably thinner, which makes me wonder how in the

world Tomoyo stayed so chunky. She was probably hoarding a secret stash of something

somewhere, we just haven't figured it out yet. Plus, I could fit in abnormally small areas, which

was convenient when Takashi and I would play cops and robbers…us being the robbers of

course, attempting to swipe some food before the storeowners called the fuzz on us. I came in

handy when rafter climbing was necessary or squeezing between trash cans in back alleys. We

had all gone back to the bridge at about six at night, Takashi and I had managed to get some day

old loaves of bread with a few pennies we found in a gutter, which were obtained with a loose

string, a paperclip and some gum that Takashi found in his hair…which was gross. We also had a

few links of sausage and a considerably large amount of breadsticks from a restaurant who was

stupid enough to leave the back door leading to the kitchen wide open. Tomoyo and Eriol had

managed to grab some hamburgers from a fast food joint and a couple of bottles of pop that

were flat. Syaoran, who generally worked alone, brought back some bread and fried shrimp that

he got off of a seafood restaurant. He also had a few hot dogs and half of a sub. All in all, it was

a pretty good haul. But as usual, everyone got to eat before me, they divided everything up

between the four of them and gave me the leftovers. I got half of a hamburger and some shrimp.

Talk about fine dining. But once again, I kept my mouth shut and watched as everyone else

engorged themselves. I noticed that everyone had a peculiar way of eating. Eriol and Syaoran ate

like the high upper class people, taking careful little bites. Takashi's way of eating resembled a

, he scarfed down anything in front of him and made queer snorting sounds when he chewed.

Tomoyo ate quickly, somewhat like a vacuum cleaner, some days I wondered if she even

chewed what went in her mouth. Syaoran sighed and leaned up against the bridge wall, looking

around lazily at everyone else. "Ok, so who's going with who tomorrow?" he asked curiously.

Eriol shrugged. "I'll go with the new chick…what's your name again?" He asked looking at me

stupidly. I opened my mouth to talk but Syaoran cut me off before I could say anything.

"It's Sakura, doofus. You need to pay more attention." he grumbled, throwing a rock at Eriols

head. "Anywho. I suppose that will work, then, Takashi and Tomoyo are working together

tomorrow and I'll go by myself. As usual" he mumbled this last part, but I think I was the only

one who heard him. Takashi and Tomoyo had pulled out a map of the city and were poking at

places where they would probably get a good amount of food, Eriol had lumbered over to my

side and smiled at me.

"Hi there. Sorry about forgetting your name… in not very good at those. Names that is." He said,

smiling at me sheepishly.

"um…no problem" I croaked, my voice deciding it didn't want to work just then. "You wanna

know why I wanted to work with you?" He asked curiously excited. I shrugged and began

stacking small rocks up in hopes to make a tower. They inevitably fell and scattered across the

ground making a small shwiff sound as they fell. He smiled, taking my ignorance as a yes and

took a deep breath. "Actually, Syaoran asked me to go with you tomorrow. He wants me to tell

him how well you work in the streets, you know getting food and all of that. He wants to make

sure your doing a fair part of the work. Syaoran's like the boss around here, he gives the orders

and we take um, however boring or meaningless they are. But he's really nice. I'm not surprised

he helped you." He rambled. I wasn't really paying that much attention, I caught most of it, but

my mind kept wandering off to other places. I dunno why though, probably lack of an actual meal

or maybe sleep deprivation. Whatever it was, I was abnormally tired and in dire need of

something softer than pokey rocks to sleep on. Pokey… Ahh the vocabulary of an eight year old.

I was looking around the bridge tiredly, stifling a few yawns and catching myself from nearly

flopping backwards and crashing several times. Syaoran must have noticed my struggle to stay

awake, because he quickly stated that we should get to bed to rest for tomorrow right after he

saw me let a yawn escape. Well, that was nice of him. And right now, those abnormally

misshapen and sharp rocks were looking mighty comfortable. Funny what being overtired does

to ones mind. Not caring what other people were doing, I quickly shuffled over to my side of the

bridge, opened up my traveling suitcase that I had taken when I ran and pulled out my blanket. I

had a pillow, but Syaoran needed something to make a fire…and since I was the minority,

Takashi graciously offered my pillow to His Small and Picky Highness. At least I had a blanket,

and I was gonna do anything to make sure it didn't get burned in the next bonfire. The Blanket

was the only thing I had left of my mother, and I wasn't gonna let it get charred like all of our stuff

did when the ship exploded. When I wasn't working… and even sometimes when I was, I

carried the blanket with me, much like a child should. I normally had it tucked under my arm or

had the right corner, where my mother embroidered my name and birthday, clutched tightly in my

hand, letting the other end of the blanket drag idly behind me. If it wasn't with me, it was tucked

in my suitcase carefully, so not to ruin it. Since I was the baby of the group, Takashi, who was a

year older than me, usually made fun of me, how I charted the blanket everywhere, but I really

didn't care, if he wanted to be more immature than I acted and call people trivial names, let him,

he's the one that looks like a fool, not me.

Anyways, Syaoran watched me stumble over to my designated sleeping place and splashed

some water from the creek onto the fire, letting the encasement of brick and blue tarp get

shrouded in black. Soon enough, the normal nighttime noises started up, Eriol with his obnoxious

snoring, Tomoyo talked in her sleep, which didn't surprise me in the least seeing as the girl never

shut up in the first place, Takashi thrashed around, waking up occasionally with a curse and a

grumble from hitting a rock, Syaoran was silent though. As was I. Though, I do wonder how the

heck he slept through all their noise, plus the noise of the city. It was a mystery to me. I probably

got about two full hours of sleep before being woken up by Tomoyo pouncing on my stomach

and screaming that it was time to wake up. I whacked my head on one or the more dangerous

rocks near my head due to my startling new alarm clock, and was surprisingly unfazed when I

realized my head was bleeding. Takashi laughed at my peril and watched as Eriol grabbed

Tomoyos hair and dragged her across the creek, soaking her bottom thoroughly, which only

make Takashi laugh harder and… Holy Lord, it must be a sign of the apocalypse… Syaoran

actually smiled. So the guy does have emotions…that's news to me.

After making sure Tomoyos butt was considerably dryer than before, we set out, Eriol and me

heading towards the theater district of the city, Takashi and Tomoyo headed for the eatery side

and Syaoran…skulking off to wherever it was that he went. Nobody really knew. Or cared

really, as long as he brought food back.

I wasn't quite sure why we went to the theater district. There were a few considerably high

class restaurants and some street vendors, but nothing big really. I suppose its better to start off

small though. As soon as Eriol said that it was time to get to work, I switched hands with my

blanket, clutching the right corner. He watched me carefully as I washed the dirt off my face with

puddle water and ran my fingers through my hair. "What are you doing?" He asked, mystified by

my odd acting. "Watch and find out…" I mumbled, immediately making tears form on the brim of

my eyes, waiting for the drops to roll down my cheeks. I sniffed and began to lurch across the

street, adding as much pathetic whining as I could. Eriol crossed his arms and leaned against a

wall, watching my every move. It was kind of unnerving, but oh well. One of the street vendors

noticed my pathetic drabbling and turned to look at me. He bent down carefully, much like an

adult would do for a whimpering puppy who just messed the carpet. "What's wrong lil girl??" He

asked concerned, Eriol watching me milk this for all its worth. I sniffed sardonically and looked

up with huge doe eyes. "My…My mommy's sick and I'm not allowed in the house…" I cried,

thinking of yet another pathetic excuse. His eyes grew wide and rather sad. "Daddy sent me for

food, but my money fell in the gutter and if I don't bring back food…daddy's…daddy's gonna

beat meeeee!!!" I moaned, throwing my head back and letting more tears fall. "Ohh…Oh

sweetie…Here.." He said, standing up and packing some submarine sandwiches and a few

sausage links and a plastic bag.

"Free of charge… last thing we need is this world is kids getting beat by their parents. You tell

your mommy to get better soon, so she can take care of you ok? Go on home now…" He

cooed, pushing my back lightly, sending me on my way.

I walked back to a very stunned Eriol, who had sunk to the ground in shock and eyed the bag,

amazed at what he had witnessed. I smiled at him weakly and helped him up.

"You… are…so… AMAZING!! Holy crap Sakura!! How did you DO that??!!" he wailed,

hugging me tightly. I stumbled backwards and grinned.

"Adults are saps for abused and hungry poor kids. it's a proven fact. Now lets go." I mumbled,

following quickly behind him as we moved down the back alleys of theaters.

We reached one of the more expensive restaurants and I was ordered to shimmy my way

through the abnormally small alleyway between the back of the restaurant and some old folks

home. It would be a problem for some one with a normal weight, but since I was both small and

frighteningly skinny, I could fit in easily, which, now that I think about it, is Reaaally scary how

many small places I could fit into. But I don't think that's really the point. Anyways, there was a

backdoor leading to the restaurants kitchen, and what do you know. Its unlocked. You know,

with the amount of beggar children running around, it's a wonder why they don't lock the doors.

And since they don't…I'm very grateful, for that, and the fact that the morons in the kitchen left a

completely unguarded wad of steak lying perfectly grilled and innocent on the table, conveniently

next to some tin foil and a bag of bread. Yay bread! And steak! That's a rarity when on the

streets, believe you me. So of course, that poor steak couldn't sit all by its lonesome, it needed

the company of some foil, a bag and bread. And that's just what it got…along with an all

expense paid trip to the fabulous and exclusive…under the bridge near the creak. Yup, how

marvelous. But what mattered was, we were getting a huge haul, what with four sub sandwiches

where one sub would feed two of us, a sausage link that wraps around my head twice( trust me,

we tried it.), some bread and a steak. Muahaha, the team of Eriol and Sakura reign victorious!

Maybe… maybe the big cheese Syaoran will congratulate me with more food and a more

comfortable sleeping arrangement…or maybe not…the inner workings of my mind are a place a

small girl should not venture in alone. Granted, everything I rant about is in my head. I think if

ever anyone heard what I was actually thinking, id have a nice warm straightjacket and a padded

room waiting for me at the closest asylum.

It took us a good couple of hours to do our 'hunting' and after the restaurant, we decided it

was about time to head back to base. By the time we had gotten back, Everyone was there

except for Syaoran. So we dropped out haul with the little that Takashi and Tomoyo got and

waited. About fifteen minutes or so passed before he got back, during that time, we had

established that Tomoyo and Takashi had mostly found some bread and a few hamburgers, but it

was nothing compared to what we had gotten. Syaoran pushed back the tarp and sat down,

tossing a bag of assorted foods into the pile, the bag consisted of a few subs, a Reuben

sandwich, and a couple of hotdogs. Huzzah, what a breakfast. Syaoran looked around and his

eyes fell on the pile of foods, I grinned inwardly as I watched his eyes grow wide.

"Who…who got all the food?" He asked, pushing past Takashi and rummaging through the bags.

Eriol smiled widely and pointed to me. Uh oh.

"Sakura gets the credit! She's Amazing!! We got four subs Sammy's, some bread, a sausage link

that can wrap around Sakura's head twice, and a steak…can I have the steak??" He added,

eyeing the food hungrily.

"Sakura…you got all of this?" he asked, looking towards me. Oh darn. I hate having any amount

of attention put on me. Its awkward. I nodded apprehensively, sitting up a little straighter from my

position near the wall. "Wow. How come you didn't do so good with Takashi then?" He asked,

standing up and walking over to me.

"Um…" I stuttered, " 'cause Takashi-kun only goes to one area…and never gets to good

places" I said, my English very choppy, I'm sure I sounded like an idiot. He smiled at me, almost

like he cared, which I highly doubt, and sat down. "Well then. I think that we have to move

someone up a rank. Takashi, for being so…blatantly stupid, you and Sakura are swapping

places" he said, chucking a rock at Takashi and opening up the bags of food, dividing everything

up. Wow… Maybe if I wish for a million dollars and a house, ill get that too! But that's highly

unlikely, I got my more food and better sleep due to the sheer fact that Takashi is…well, he's a

moron, and I brought back a good amount of food. Yay for me being malnourished! Ok, so not

really, but it paid off to be young and freakishly skinny. Syaoran handed me half a sub, some

bread and a chunk of steak. How wonderful! I get actual food! I watched as Syaoran bit off a

piece of the sub and began eating, but became distracted since Syaoran was for some reason

staring at me…or my blanket, I wasn't sure…but it was creepy. "Tomorrow…" he said through

a mouthful of chewed up sub, " Sakura is working with me"

* * *

**_Okay! That's chapter one! Huzzah! So how did you like it? And thus the fun begins! _**

**_Syaoran is gonna work with Sakura…how unlike him. I thought the whiny Sakura bit _**

**_was particularly genius. I just thought of that off the top of my head. Twas good _**

**_though, very good. Anyway, Till next Time!!_**

**_Ja Ne!!!_**

**_Chappy 2 up soon_**


	3. Chapter 2: And so it Begins

Chapter 2: And so it Begins 

"Tomorrow…" he said through a mouthful of chewed up sub, " Sakura is working with me"

* * *

Eriol nearly gagged on the food in his mouth. His eyes grew wide and he coughed a few times

"HUH?? But you NEVER work with ANYONE!!" he said confused. I admit, I was a bit

confused too, I also knew that Syaoran was a lone wolf type of guy…so what the heck does he

wanna work with me for?

Syaoran looked up at us with some lettuce hanging from his mouth and began to talk, I watched

as small bits of food sprayed from his mouth and frowned in disgust…you'd think a guy older

than all of us would have at least some manners.

"Yea, I usually work alone, and I bring back at least a full bag of food. But Sakura and Eriol

brought back at least enough food to last us a few days. So if we team up, maybe we can get

more food, more often." He said, swallowing his food. Eriol smiled and nodded.

"okay. Whatever works, this kid is good though, I think you'll be a good team. But what about

the rest of us?" he asked, looking around at Takashi and the recently demoted Takashi. He

scratched his chin quickly and flicked something into the air, which makes me wonder how clean

we really are. Watching him scratch himself made me rather itchy and soon we both looked like

a couple of dogs trying to get a flea. Which, again, makes me wonder…can people get fleas? I

know we don't have to worry about lice because lice like clean hair…and our hair was anything

but clean, but what about fleas?? Okay, no more talk of itchy bugs…STOP SCRATCHIN

YOURSELF SAKURA!! "Well, Eriol and Tomoyo, you two can work together, and Takashi,

you can work by yourself. You never get much anyways, no matter who you work with." He

said with a wicked grin on his face. I chortled lightly and then coughed, covering my mouth with

my grubby sleeve. When up close, it looked as if there could be an entire civilization living in the

dirt on my shirt… but its better than no clothes at all. Living on the streets kind of gives you a

new appreciation of things. Which I suppose can help you in the long run. Somehow…maybe…

okay, maybe not, but I think it clogs your conscious a bit, and feeling so sorry for yourself helps

in the begging and whining. At least for me it does. I fished through the rest of my food, picking

all the leafy greens off of them. I didn't like the taste. One would think that with so little to eat,

you'd take what you get, but for some reason lettuce makes me sick every time I eat it. Mom

said I was allergic to lettuce…which I didn't quite know what that meant when I was four and

couldn't say much but 'I gotta potty' and the ever famous ' more'. Syaoran looked at me with a

confused stare and shifted his eyes to the mayonnaise covered lettuce lying on my knee.

"Why aint you eatin that?" he said mid chew. I looked up at him, thinking of how to form my

response. "I…am…allergic…" I said, making sure I said it right. He smiled at the way I said

it…or maybe he was smiling cause I talk funny, who knows, the point is he smiled. Unusual for

him. And it seemed that when he smiled, it was always in my direction. "Well, that sucks. Here,

I'll eat it. I'm not picky." He said, walking over to me and swiping the lettuce off of my knee. I

nodded and continued my thorough inspection of foods. The next day, Syaoran woke me up a

little before everyone else. I muttered something in Japanese and attempted to roll over but was

welcomed by the unexpected surprise of Tomoyos foot. I jumped up and smacked my head into

Syaoran's chin, sending us both to the ground, hissing in pain. He rubbed his chin and laughed,

making me suddenly aware that I was cursing under my breath… of course in Japanese, so it

sounded like a two year old babbling randomly.

"Hey, I have a proposition for you." He said, crawling over a sleeping Takashi and sitting down

next to me. I looked at him blankly and tilted my head to the side. He grinned and nodded.

"Right. You don't speak much English. Okay, how bout this? I have an idea. A Deal kind of."

He said, looking at me with wondering eyes, hoping that I would understand something he said.

Well lets just make today full of surprises, cause I understood. Two points for me!

"A…Deal?" I asked, stifling a yawn. He nodded and turned to face me. "Okay, You help me

get a lot of food, like you did with Eriol, and I'll help you with your English. Deal?" He said,

staring at me again. I didn't like it when he stared at me. Mainly because it made me want to

stare back. I nodded and held out my hand, I had watched enough TV at the orphanage to

know that that's what people do when settling an agreement. "Deal." I said, shaking his hand.

He smiled. Again with the smiling! Why does he have to smile so much at me!

* * *

After getting everyone up and on their way, Syaoran and I plodded down the streets of New

York, making our way to Market Street, where there were about fifty street vendors and open

markets lined with assorted fruits. We stood in an alleyway that dumped right into the hustle and

bustle of the vending and buying. "Okay Sakura. Go work your magic." He said, patting my

back encouragingly. I nodded and made my left arm holding my blanket limp. I took off my right

shoe and tousled my hair roughly. I began to think of the night my mother died and the day I had

come to New York. My vision became blurry and I felt the tears start to fall down my cheeks. I

limped out onto the side walk and began walking past street vendors, acting pleasantly surprised

when I found a penny on the ground. I began my fake attempts to look for change and made

sure I tripped myself as I bent down to pick up a quarter conveniently next to a vendors cart.

Once I hit the ground I began to cry, making the guy look down at me sympathetically. I looked

up at him with pathetic eyes and rubbed at my knee where it had gotten scraped up a little and

had begun to bleed lightly.

"Are…Are you alright?" He asked, kneeling down next to me with a band-aid. I nodded tiredly

and sighed. "Momma sent me…for…to get some of bread…but I think I don't have money

enough to buy some. She…Momma, she tolded me to not to come home until I gots some

bread or some food." I said, making sure the guy realized that I sucked at speaking English. He

nodded with a fatherly expression and stood up. "And you say you don't have enough money

for food?" he asked, making sure he had it right. Alright, I'm getting somewhere! I nodded and

stood up, surprising myself when I winced at the sudden pain in my knee. "Well. How much do

you have?" He asked, watching as I held out my hand, showing three dimes a few pennies and

a dollar in quarters. "The rest some mean boy stole from me." I muttered looking down at my

shoeless foot. He sighed and wiped at his eyes. "Well then." He said pulling a white grocery bag

out and filling it with bread, some salami and a bottle of pop, " Just give me what you have and

tell your momma to pay the rest to Mr. Trinetti, okay?" He said exchanging my mere pocket

change for a full bag of food. I nodded and smiled. " Doumo Arigato!!" I squealed, turning

briskly and limping off to the alley where Syaoran was watching carefully. As soon I was hidden

from the vendors and massive amounts of people, I turned and handed Syaoran the bag. His

eyes widened and a large smile played across his lips as he shifted things around in the bag.

"Wow. Man, Eriol was RIGHT! Your amazing! How do you do it?" He asked, astonished. I

shrugged "Is not much. I'm glad your happy though" I mumbled, sliding my shoe back on my

foot and rubbing my knee where I fell. "Yea right. I get this much in one day, you got it in less

than ten minutes. That's pretty good Sakura. Where did you learn to act like that?" He asked as

we made our way back down the alley. "I Don't know. I guess I think of it like playing with

friends in Japan. We made stories a lot to play out." I said as I rolled my shoulder back and

forth, trying to ease the cramp that formed there due to keeping it in a dead like state for a few

minutes. The rest of the day went unusually well. Syaoran and I got a lot more food than

expected and since we did, we didn't have to go out the next day, which was very good,

because sometime during the night it had begun to rain and by morning it was an ongoing

torrential downpour. So we stayed inside and everyone taught me how to play cards with a

deck that Eriol randomly pulled out of nowhere. It turns out, that knowing how to play

Blackjack and Egyptian rat screw came in handy when one was unusually bored. Mostly though,

other than playing cards, people slept and Syaoran kept to his end of the deal, sitting with me in

the far corner of the hideout, teaching me pronunciations and whatnot. Night came quickly, so

did the rains end. By Twilight, the rain had completely stopped and there was steam leaking

from the ground everywhere. It was a pretty interesting sight to see.

The next few days werepretty much the same. And by the end of the week, we had enough food

in our little hideaway that we didn't have to do anything for a little while. Which was pretty

beneficial to us, seeing as sleep was a wonderful, WONDERFUL thing. Especially since during

one of his random walks outside, Syaoran found a couple of old mattresses ,he hauled them in

and stated that whoever got to it first got it for the night. It was a bit of a throw down but I

actually managed to get the ratty old thing a couple of nights. Granted they weren't in the best of

conditions, they were still a heck of a lot more comfortable than sleeping on wet rocks. My

English was progressing nicely and I didn't sound so unusually dumb when I spoke. Eriol and

Tomoyo working together managed to make out to be a good team and even Takashi was

pulling a little bit of the weight. So for as of right now, Things weren't so bad. Living in the

streets was manageable and in better company than that at the orphanage. Too Bad things

wouldn't stay like that forever.

* * *

**_Well, There's chapter two!!! Huzzah! Hope you liked it!! This was like three pages or _**

**_so. Anyways. Please review and tell me what you think!! I personally like this story a _**

**_lot. I think I did a pretty good job on this, but my opinion, though interesting, is _**

**_irrelevant. So, tell me what you think!! And as always;_**

****

Till Next Time!

Ja!

**_Chappy 3 up soon_**


	4. Chapter 3: Ordinary

Chapter 3: Ordinary 

We had kept pretty close to the hunting order. I had just turned 9 and I occasionally shifted from person to

person. As Syaoran had promised, he helped me with my English, which is getting abnormally better, and he has

become a good friend of mine. He's usually the only person I talk to when I have to talk, but sometimes I'll strike

up some small talk with Eriol, Or rather, he'll strike up the talking, I just nod and act like I'm listening, replying

with a 'Ahh' or 'hmm' every so often. Syaoran let me have a day off for my birthday, so I didn't have to go

hunting and he let me have the less tattered mattress the previous night. So naturally, I slept in. I had been

getting up with Syaoran before dawn most every day and that wears down a person eventually. By the time they

had gotten back from the breakfast hunt, Tomoyo and Eriol had the most haul, Syaoran and Takashi with a grand

total of zip. Takashi kept complaining that the area was too small or grubby. Or that he could never act like I

could and wound up sending himself on a lack of self-esteem onslaught. Which in turn made Syaoran grumpy.

That's where I woke up. Syaoran flopping down on the mattress and smashing my foot. I mumbled a quick curse

and drew myself out from under my blanket, quite unwillingly, I might add. "Its not my fault Sakura's your

Arttymus…." Takashi said angrily. "Why did you give her the day off anyways? We've been doin' just as much

work as she has." Takashi grumbled, crossing his arms. Syaoran sighed and threw a rock at Takashi's head.

"Because, one, it's Sakura's Birthday and I figured I'd let her stay here today cause she works about twice as

hard as any of us. And Two… Takashi, It's ARTIMIS. Not…whatever the heck you just said." Syaoran

corrected, pulling the bag of food over to his side with a stick. I sat up straighter and crossed my legs, wiping

eye gunk from the corners of my eye lids. Syaoran sighed and told Eriol to go grab what was left of our hoard of

food, Which wasn't exactly a hoard, more of a small pile stuffed under some cold rocks. Eriol pulled out some

week old bread and a salami log I had swiped yesterday. Hooray, more salami. I think that was the only source of

meat we have had for about two weeks now. I love the stuff, but I do grow tired of the same old, salty, dirt

encrusted meats. I watched as Syaoran began splitting up the foods, handing as little as he could to Takashi.

"Hey, what's with the jip, Syao?" He said sadly, holding up a small hunk of Salami shoved between some bread

and bacon.

"You didn't do anything but put yourself in a shoddy mood Takashi. We didn't get ANY food. So, you get a

food dock today." He muttered, handing me a fairly decent portion of Bread and most of the Bacon. Tomoyo was

a vegetarian since last week, when she walked past a butchers shop and saw him cutting up a cow, Takashi and

Eriol don't like bacon, the losers, and Syaoran was just giving me it cause he knows I love it to death. But so

does he. He once told me that if he could live on only two types of food and one type of drink, he said it would

be Bacon, Beef Jerky, and Cranberry juice. Which is a pretty odd combination, but hey, the boy likes his meat.

Can't blame him. "Sakura, would you mind filling in for Takashi?" He asked, biting into the bacon and bread

sandwich had had just fixed. I shook my head and chewed, Making sure I didn't end up like a gluttonous eater

like the others and talk while I'm chewing, and then laughing when somebody gets sprayed with mushed foods.

Yum.

"Plus… Takashi, You called my Syao. I hate that. It sounds stupid." He said, making sure Takashi knew his

place. I don't think he liked Takashi very much, but the guy was a notorious snitch, Syaoran worried that if he

kicked Takashi out, He would 'rat them out to the Fuzz and we'd all wind up at some smelly old orphanage with

ugly headmistresses with big hair'. I shuddered at this. Syaoran had never been to an orphanage and only knew

what I had told him. In which case that uglier than sin, big haired, devil of a headmistress was very true. After the

arguing was done, everyone had settled down and we were about to play poker, gambling for a bag of potato

chips and some old French fries, when there was an unusual noise coming from outside the tarp. Syaoran made

everyone get quiet and we sat very still. We knew that cops liked to check around here sometimes, once they

had found us and we said that we used this place as a hideout and that our parents are expecting us at five. It

worked, miraculously. However, this time was different. It wasn't the cops. Or anything human. The tarp shifted

and a small black kitten with a tattered blue ribbon and a bell stepped through and began sniffing around. I

smiled and began to click my tongue, holding my hand out slowly for it. It came. Well, he came I should say, he

had stunning green eyes and a small white tuft of fur on his chest, but was otherwise completely black.

After a severe amount of begging and convincing him that it would be a present, I got to keep the cat, and I

named it Spinel, or Suppi for short. He was cute, and not very demanding. I think even Syaoran liked him, a little ,

maybe…or maybe he just tolerated him, I don't really know, but he didn't seem to have a problem with him.

Suppi didn't ask for much. We normally just took whatever we didn't eat and mushed it up with some water, then

put it in a rock that was shaped like a bowl. He liked milk too, so sometimes I'd sneak around to the grocery store

and get a small thing of it. For some reason, he never tried to run. At night, he would either go to Syaoran or

come to me, and lie down on my chest, purring contently. And when we were out getting food, he'd sit

obediently by the tarp and wait for us, or he'd find a warm spot between my blanket and the mattress and sleep.

Syaoran got some kitty treats for him once from some old ladies bag of groceries, Suppi liked them. I think we still

have a few somewhere, though I'm not to sure. He comes in handy catching mice, which were a huge problem

before we found him, or rather, he found us. It grosses Tomoyo out a bit to see Suppi tearing around the place,

batting at the mouse like a toy. He usually catches it, then eats it. Which makes Tomoyo and Eriol sick. Takashi

laughs at it and Me and Syaoran congratulate him, somewhat like a child who had learned to go to the toilet

instead of messing his pants. After things had calmed down for the night, Takashi had gone out for a while, I

think it was because Syaoran had yelled at him again, Takashi had been exceedingly annoying and uptight

today, none of us really knew why. A couple hours later, we had all gotten up to go get dinner when Takashi

came back, plodding his way through the mud and flopping down on the mattress, sulking still. "I'm sorry" he

mumbled, staring at his feet.

"Sorry for what?" Tomoyo asked, looking up from the cat.

"I was an ass. I didn't mean to. Its just that, ever since she came here, I've been getting the downside of it all."

He said, sneering lightly at me. Wow. Pent up aggression in a 11 year old. Gotta love it. Syaoran snarled and

threw a rock, which he really liked doing I noticed, at Takashi.

"Don't blame Sakura, blame yourself for being a lazy oaf!" he said angrily. Takashi huffed and scooted into a

small corner of the bridge…Things were pretty quiet after that. Not much else happened. I was lucky to get the

worn down mattress that night, and other than that, nothing happened.

* * *

_**Okay, that was really uninteresting and somewhat boring, im sure, but I needed to put up a chapter, so there**_

_** ya go! But hey look! Its Suppi!! Hoorah! I love that cat…like thing…O.o. Okay, Until next time!**_

__

Ja!

Kirralle


	5. Chapter 4: The new Girl

Chapter 4: The new girl 

Months flew by as usual. The routine never changed, Syaoran and I would go out every day and pilfer, pillage

and otherwise plunder our way through the streets, taking whatever we could fit our grubby lil fingers around

and make off with as fast as we could. Same as the others, though they weren't nearly as proficient. My English

is nearly perfect now, although I still have some troubles saying some things. Which is somewhat embarrassing,

though Syaoran and Eriol both insist that its adorable, not annoying, which only makes me more embarrassed.

Today though, Today was different. Today when we were all out pillaging the streets like good little orphans,

Takashi picked up a friend. Yup. Syaoran and I came back to find that everyone was going gaga over this new

chick, who miraculously…looked like me. But that wasn't the scary part…okay it was moderately creepy, but the

scary thing was… I knew her. Yea, from the orphanage. What she was doing here, in our hideout, was beyond

me. But what was even scarier was the reaction Syaoran had to her. No screaming fits of rage, no cold

shouldering. Nope, he smiled and went over to talk to her. All nice and buddy buddy like

"Takashi, who's this?" he grinned sitting across from her and glancing in her direction.

"Ah, this, is Risa. I found her scurrying about the spillway when I was out scavenging. She's pretty good at it

too. Look!" Takashi said, waving his arms over a pile of food about half the size of ours. Syaoran's eyes widened

and he smiled.

"Well. That's impressive. Uh…you got a place to stay?" he asked, hoping that she didn't. She smiled and shook

her head.

"nope. 'Fraid I don't." she said sheepishly. Syaoran grinned and nodded

"Kay. Now you do. Welcome." he said happily. I glowered at Risa but quickly suppressed it. Only because she

had turned to see who else was here. And her eyes got all wide and she smiled and put on a big 'oh im so happy

to see you!' act.

"Oh…my…gosh. Sakura! HOW ARE YOU?!" she said loudly, thinking I couldn't speak a lick of English yet.

Well, I'll show her.

" Eh, alright, actually, pretty good, and you?" I said perfectly, making her eyes go wide.

"Wow. Your learned to talk! that's good!" She said, sounding like she was talking to a three year old. This is

why I hated this chick, She talked to everyone like she was the queen of the whole darn world and that everyone

was below her. That she was unusually smart and witty and that everyone loved her. Yea right. She's a she devil

if you ask me. A evil, evil thing. But something puzzled me more than her being all nice and acting like a

downtrodden dork. What the hell was she doing here. On the streets?

"you two know each other?" Syaoran asked, with a surprised expression.

"Yea…" I muttered " from the orphanage, she was there too. But what gets me is… what the heck are you doin

here, Risa, you never struck me as someone who would succumb to street life. Your more of a 'let me get adopted

to a rich family, God' kinda girl" I said, only stumbling over a couple of words. I was known to stutter sometimes.

"Oh…well if you must know" She said like it was some huge secret. "I came to look for you. You were right to

get out of that hellhole while you could. And I thought maybe living on the streets like you would get me to find

you and learn how to do this thang right." she said nodding her head. I raised an eyebrow and grinned.

"You…want to be like me?" I asked, trying to hold in a scream of laughter that was building in side of me. But I

couldn't. It came out like an explosion. After I was done laughing my butt off, I wiped my eye and sighed.

"Whooo. You have know idea what you got yourself into. You think this is easy?" I asked, saying 'yourself'

more like 'yuuselsh'. dang my inability to speak right. The girl nodded blankly and I just laughed again.

"It looks easy. Right?" she said, sitting down next to me.

"There was a reason I never liked you…" I mumbled under my breath.

"huh?"

"Oh… nothing. Risa, your kidding yourself if you think this was easy. I would have died if Syaoran hadn't

rescued my sorry butt from a vendor and some crazed pigeons. Every day we wake up in some uncomfortable

position. We get up, square off and head out to look for food. Which is no picnic. We have to steal it all because

we have no money. You have to do all this low and degrading stuff just to hope to get a slice of bread and if you

cant, you have to steal it and risk the police coming after you. Food is always limited, I think That we've been

wearing the same clothes for about two weeks now, on and off. The baths we take are in the water hole a few

minutes away from here and its really just a giant puddle from all the rain, and we only do that to get the dirt out

of our hair and off our skin. Eriol hasn't brushed his teeth in a while and Im running out of toothpaste…which I

was smart enough to take from the orphanage. If your lucky you may get a mattress, which has springs poking

out and all of the food you get, no matter how much, gets either divided or shared among everyone else, and

then the scraps go to Suppi. This is not easy. So if you want to do this get that silly delusion out of your head."

I rambled, making her gasp and nod when appropriate. Syaoran and the rest of 'um nodded in agreement and

mumbled 'yup' and whatnot.

"Okay. But who's Suppi? Is there someone else I haven't met?" she asked, confused. I shook my head and

turned around, picking the small, sleeping black cat up from the mattress behind me. I had found a better blue

ribbon a while back and replaced the old one. I cradled the kitten like a baby and scratched his chin.

"This is Spinel. We call him Suppi though. And he needs to eat too." I said, holding the cat out and then putting

him down when I was finished, watching him crawl into my lap and go to sleep, purring contently.

"Aw. He's cute." she smiled, reaching down and petting him on the head. He tried to bite her, which I thought

was funny.

"hey…" she muttered, pulling her hand back quickly.

"Do you understand now? This is no cakewalk" Eriol said, shuffling over to sit next to Tomoyo and Syaoran

hopped over the little bit of creek that ran under the tunnel and sat down next to me.

"oh. So does that mean I have to go back, cause I really don't want to. I made quite the dramatic exit." she said,

nodding her head somberly.

"No it just means you gotta know what your getting in to." Takashi said, turning to face her.

"I do! Can I please stay?" she begged, which was waaayyy below Risa. Something was up.

"Yea. Sure why not. But you need to pull your own weight. You'll team up with Takashi okay?" Syaoran said,

taking up his leader like responsibilities.

"Oh. But I was hoping I could go with you…" she said, cutely, batting her eyes and smiling at Syaoran. I stifled

a laugh at how stupid she looked and smiled when Syaoran shook his head.

"Nope. Not gonna happen. I work with Sakura. And I don't care if you have a little bit of Skill with pilfering,

nobody can steal or weasel her way into getting food like this girl can." he said proudly, nudging my arm lightly.

I smiled and stared blankly at Risa's dumbstruck face.

"Oh. Well what about Eriol then?" she hoped, smiling at him. But frowning when he shook his head.

"Nope. I work with Tomoyo. Sorry chicky, your stuck with Takashi." he smiled, hugging Tomoyo quickly. Which

made Tomoyo blush a crimson color. I smiled at the fact that she was going to have to work with the laziest thing

ever and sighed contently.

"Okay. Can we get the ranking done and eat, I'm really hungry." Eriol grumbled, all of us hearing his stomach

growl.

"ranking??" Risa asked.

"Yup. We have ranks here. Syaoran's first, Im second, due to my skills. Eriols third, Tomoyo's fourth and

Takahi's last in fifth." I said proudly. Gloating a bit.

"Yea, The lower you are in the rankings, the less privileges you get. Your sixth since we don't know how you

work. So that means… you sleep over on the other side of the creek with the rocks, you get whatever anyone

else doesn't eat, including Suppi. No ifs ands or buts. The better and harder you work, the higher the chance

that you might move up in the rankings. Got it?" Syaoran said, beginning to dig through the bags and divide

things up.

"That's not fair!" she said angrily. Syaoran looked up and glowered.

"If you don't like it, leave." he said, handing me some bread that was cut in two and some assorted meats and

cheese. I made a sandwich as he handed everyone else some and then smiled as he gave Suppi some fish he tore

apart. Risa sighed as she watched the rest of us eat. I smiled inwardly and remembered how I felt watching the

rest of them eat without caring for the other and sighed. Something in my gut told me to help her, but my head

was screaming No you dolt! You had to suffer the same thing! Don't help her! But of course, my gut overtook

my brain. Damn. I sighed and stood up, scraping off the bits of my sandwich that I ate and put it back in the

napkin it was wrapped in. I hopped over the crick and sunk down to meet her eyes. I hate doing the right thing,

especially when it meant giving her food.

"Here. Im not hungry anymore." I muttered somberly, turning around quickly and heading back to my seat.

Syaoran looked at me confused, as did everyone else and I shrugged.

" I know what it feels like to be starving while everyone around me eats. Doesn't mean she has to." I said,

scooting over to the mattress that Suppi was on and laying down. I stroked the snoozing cat absentmindedly. I

was still hungry and my stomach agreed wholeheartedly. Though I don't think a day goes by that I'm not a little

hungry. A bunch of thoughts prevented me from sleeping. Since there was another mouth to feed, we would

have to get more food, or at least try to. Either way, somebody was going to get hungry, and I have a feeling it

will be me.

* * *

_**Kay! that's chapter four! Sorry its been so long since an update! I've been busy! Anyways, hoped you liked **_

_**this one! Review if you feel inclined to do so. I got a review saying that this reminded said reviewer of the **_

_**movie "The Thief Lord". I've never seen it. So I don't know, but if it does…I'm sorry, I didn't intend for it to! **_

_**But its okay if you thought it did, cause if you liked the movie than you obviously like this! Huzzah. Anyways, **_

_**I suppose that's it for now, **_

_**so until next time!**_

_**Ja! **_

_**Kirralle**_


	6. Chapter 5: Broken

Chapter 5: Broken 

Okay, so Risa came to live with us. Goody goody. That's just what we needed, another mouth to feed. And ya

know, that snot… she's really getting on my nerves. It seems like every night she finds a way to get one of the

mattresses. And she's lowest in the rankings! She's getting a lot of food to, for a mouse. And I call her a mouse

because that's what she is. A little, conniving lil' mouse. She sneaks her way into getting more food than she

should, she somehow always finds the warmest spot under the bridge that evening, and she… ohhh, she gets

my blood boiling. I don't think I've ever hated anybody… I didn't think it was possible for me to hate anyone.

But there's the proof! She's getting all cozy with Syaoran! What's with that!! I… I cant even begin to FATHOM

WHY she would want to! Every morning we wake up, Syaoran makes it a priority to see how everyone is doing,

starting with me and Suppi. And every time he starts talking to me, she buts in. She sticks her little, prissy,

smelly, notmeantforstreetlife nose in everything. It makes me sick. But I suppose that's really not the point.

What's really the big thing today, well okay, there's two big things. One; I've officially been with the vagabonds

I now call friends for a full year. And I'm 13 today. Holy crap, I'm a teenager. Maybe that's why I'm always so

moody. I remember before mama died, she told me to never grow up, cause teenagers were nothing but trouble.

We'll I wouldn't rightly know If we were trouble or not. I don't quite have it figured out how I can watch myself

grow up yet. And that bothers me sometimes. But anyways. That was only the semi- big thing. So listen up,

cause its cool. You see. Me and Syaoran went on our daily 'hunt', but we got started late because Risa wouldn't

shut her whiny little yap, complaining how she wanted a chance to go with Syaoran. He stood his ground of

course, said something along the lines of ' I've never been fond of changing how things work. Before Sakura I

hunted by myself. Now I hunt with her. You don't like it, don't hunt and go hungry, cause if you don't pull your

own weight, you don't get anything.' That made me smile. A lot. And I really don't quite know why. Oh well.

Anyways, where was I… oh yea. So we had gotten a late start, by about two hours. I think. But anyways, By the

time we had gotten into town, most of the vendors were on break and watching every single move everyone

made. Well darn. So we had to go somewhere else. One of the more shoddy places in the city, the East End. Its

not that it was a bad neighborhood…okay it was, I lied. But there was some of the best food there, so we found

out. And we found something even better. Strategically placed on the corner of two streets, was an old

abandoned house, The door was boarded up, but the windows were all open and it was in pretty good shape all

together. We snuck a peek inside and found it to be rather homely, Syaoran guessed it was one of many houses

abandoned when the turn of the century came round and a lot of people went out of business. But what's one

mans loss is another mans…hmm. What would that make it. I know its what's one mans trash is another mans

treasure, but how do you phrase it for something they lost? Well in any case. I had a revelation, one of many

lately, and when I talked it over with the head honcho, he had the exact same thing in mind. So we gathered our

daily scavenges and headed home, bearing a bit bigger load than usual. Home. That has a nice ring to it. And I

suppose that's what we called it. But as soon as we walked through that tarp and told everyone of our findings,

they jumped at the chance to get outta here. Good. Im sure we were all a bit tired of laying on rocks every single

darn night. The next day, since we didn't really have anything to pack, Save for me, who seriously needed to

pack her blanket and tuna for Suppi, we left. Syaoran and I lead the way, which semi-aggravated Risa, so you can

bet I was happy. As we collected in front of the house, Takashi gasped and coughed, gaping at the size of it. I

smiled and glanced sideways at Syaoran, who was smiling at me. Creepy. But just slightly. I'd never seen

Syaoran smile before… it was odd…but at the same time…not. But that wasn't all. Risa noticed and steamed. I

think she has a strange complex about Syaoran, which makes me laugh all the more. She should have stayed at

the orphanage. At least we would be happy, and probably more full. Did I mention this chick eats more than

Tomoyo? Yea, I didn't think that was possible. But once again, I was proven wrong. Its gotten her in trouble

several times, because she would wake up and sneak whatever was left. And, she, on several occasions, has

tried to steal either mine or suppi's food. I clocked her once because she had, right in front of us, well me at least,

moved Suppi from where he was sitting and eating, chucked him into a wall, and began to eat his food. I felt so

bad for that poor little kitten, I hopped right up and socked her square in the eye, than picked up my cat and fed

him her food. She has a black eye now. But its beginning to fade. How sad. Walking into the house, one can

understand why they would abandon it. The structure was more or less sound, and the floors were sturdy, but it

smelled like pond water and there was either dust or mold EVERYWHERE. However, there were more than

enough beds for everyone and cupboards where we could keep food instead of under a rock. Risa didn't like the

smell or the house in particular, and Syaoran and Eriol both poked in and sneered, saying that if she didn't like it,

than go back to the bridge. She frowned and ran her finger along the mantle over the fireplace, scoffing at the

dust. I smiled at her dismay. At leasat I knew my feelings of hatred for her were mutual. Our first priority was to

get this place clean. So Syaoran and Eriol had gone out with a few buckets and a bag. Syaoran was going down

to the stream we used to live at to grab some buckets of water and Eriol to pilfer some soap. One to clean the

place, and two to clean each other, for the fact that we all stunk something awful was staring us in the face. A

couple hours later, Syaoran came through the door, pushing a bucket of water with his foot and carrying one in

each hand. Eriol came in soon after with enough soap to capsize a small boat. That was good. As soon as they

got things ready, we pulled out some rags that were left lying in a linen closet and began scrubbing things down.

Some of the things were easy to clean. I had an abnormally easy time with things I could reach, but on several

occasions I had to ask Syaoran to give me a boost so I could reach something high up. By the end of a few

hours, the sun was setting and Takashi had, oh wow, done something right. He had grabbed some wood from a

smashed table out back and schlepped it into the fire place and lit that bad boy up. We had gotten a few of the

rooms clean completely. The main room and two of the bedrooms. The rest would have to wait until tomorrow.

Not wanting to go into the cold bedrooms, we all pulled our mattresses into the main room by the fire and

crashed there, after eating what must have been the smallest meal anyone had ever seen in the history of forever.

Takashi had decided to stay up later than the rest of us to feed the fire when it started to grow low, but no

sooner had all of us fallen asleep than we all woke up to a crazy crash coming from the kitchen. Syaoran, being

the oldest, was prioritized to get up and go check it out while the rest of us cowered in a bit of fear. Ok, it was

only Risa who was cowering, we were just sitting there wondering what it was. A few minutes passed, and a few

loud thumps and a yelp…and a strange sort of squeal…some more thumps. Then silence. A few seconds later

we saw Syaoran walk out of the hallway with a small bundle in his arms. Which just so happened to jump up and

start running for me, knocking me back on my… well, back. When I had the mind to open my eyes, I found two

things startling, one, the fact that staring me in the face, was probably the cutest damn puppy I have ever seen

and two, Syaoran was smiling at me again. But what was scarier was that, I smiled back.

"Sakura, meet Kero"

* * *

_**Right-o! That's chapter…umm…five? Right five! Sorry, brain fart. Anyways, there's Kero! A lot of people **_

_**were wondering when he'd come in. And I couldn't rightly make 'im a talking teddy bear…thing… so I made **_

_**him a dog. Hope you don't mind. Anyways, until next time!**___

Ja!

Kirra


	7. Chapter 6: Feel

Chapter 6: Feel 

A few weeks back, Syaoran and I found this awesome new place for all of us to live instead of under a bridge.

Today, its none too shabby. We found some old furniture behind the house and lugged it inside. There was a

couch that when properly dusted, was quite usable, a couple of coffee tables in amazing condition, a lounging

chair and a bunch of massive pillows. Luckily, most of this stuff was under a tarp and was not damaged by the

weather. I called it home. It was the closest thing I've had for a long time.

To some people, home was just a place to take your shoes off at night and drink away your problems. To

others, like us, home was not just a roof over our heads, it was sharing it with the people you care about and

want to spend time with. I think the only people who didn't feel this way among us was Takashi and Risa. They

seemed to be on a trip where everything had to be perfect and if it wasn't, they weren't happy. Well screw them.

You take what you get, one of the first rules of street life. Somehow, among all the daily scavenging, we found

time to make the place more homely and found a way to feed all of us; me and Syaoran, Takashi and Risa,

Tomoyo and Eriol, and Suppi and Kero, who turned out to be a mutt that wouldn't grow any taller than the

bottom of my knee. And somewhere along the line…something happened. I have know idea what it is, and I

don't like not knowing things. I suppose I get it from being new to the whole English language. When people

would talk behind my back and I would have little to no idea of what they were saying kind of peeved me to no

end. But this wasn't like that. For some reason, for the past few weeks, about a week before we came here, so I

suppose it would be about a month ago that this started…Ahh I digress, Anyway. About a month ago, Risa's

constant devotion to Syaoran began to upset me highly. And when I would wake up in the morning, I would be

unusually happy to see him. Now, every time he talks to me or looks at me, I get this crazy weird feeling in my

stomach. Like, some midget punching me in the stomach several times to annoy me. Or like…my stomach was a

cage with a million birds fluttering around inside. Its an odd sensation, really. But what gets me is one; I

seriously am developing an unadulterated loathing of Risa and two; I have no idea why. And I hate that.

Today was Friday, the day where we scavenge and pilfer for the entire day until the sun sets and then as

soon as it gets dark, we go back and eat, saving the rest for the weekend. A couple of months back we decided

that Saturday and Sunday would be days where we do absolutely nothing and catch up on sleep and whatnot.

So Friday is our ' bring in the mother load' day. Well that's what I call it at least. Everyone else calls it Friday. I

woke up to a barely burning fire and Syaoran's gaping, slightly snoring face about two inches from mine. I felt

my face instantly heat up. Hmm. Awkward. So I rolled over and stood up, pulling the blankets, which acted as

makeshift curtains, off the windows and doused the fire, nudging Syaoran with my foot as I walked past, smiling

as he rolled over and stared at me with a watery and terribly groggy expression. He sat up and placed an arm in

front of his eyes, letting them adjust to the light. I realized I was staring at him. Creepy. Rushing away, I kicked

Risa hard so she was now semi-permanently in pain and did the same with Takashi, mainly cause I didn't like

him. Eriol woke up on his own and shook Tomoyo lightly. I smiled at that. It was pretty obvious that they liked

each other, I was just waiting for them to admit it. Syaoran and I had bets going as to when it will happen.

Whoever wins will get the other persons food for one meal. I hope I win, cause people have learned that getting

between me and my food was probably not the best idea, I normally bite them. Yea, its not pretty, but I get really

hungry and depend on my limited amount of food to sedate me for the time being.

After about 20 minutes, we all had basically woken up and were heading out of the door. I picked up Kero

and hoisted him up under my arm, Kero had become another ploy of mine. I've learned that people cant resist

helping a poor little girl and her puppy. And since we try not to go beg at the same door twice, nobody ever

realizes what the hell it is were trying to pull. Syaoran and I were the last ones to leave the house, so we closed

the door and arranged it so it looked as if nobody had been there. As soon as that was done, we headed down

the street, my stomach feeling like it could probably take flight any minute. We had been out for a couple of

hours by the time we had stashed a couple of sacks of food under the old bridge. We kept food there until it was

about time to turn in, where upon we would go back for it and head on home.

There had been a small fruit stand set up on the corner of one of the busiest streets in New York and I was

bloody determined to get at least one orange. I do so love them, so sweet and at the same time tart enough to

make your face scrunch up like a retarded fish. I pointed the stand out to Syaoran, who decided it was a good

idea to grab some fruit and we began to make our way across the street. It was then that Kero decided that it

would be a good time to torment the pigeons. And me, being worried that he would get hit by a car, was stupid

and dove after him, successfully managing to one; stuff him back under my arm, two; do a perfect face plant into

the pavement, and three; roll into the fruit stand vendor, who felt so bad for me that he put some assorted goods

in a bag and gave it to me, free of charge. Well then. Syaoran panicked and came running over to me, who was

on the sidewalk wiping her eyes of tears and then also panicking because my left cheek was profusely bleeding.

He knelt down and sighed, a small grin playing across his lips. Damn, there was nothing funny about this, and

yet I found myself smiling only because he was. He took my face in his hand and turned it to the side, measuring

the extent of the damage. Apparently I had managed to break of a piece of the leg of the fruit cart and not only

had a huge gash running from the bottom of my left ear to about halfway down my chin, I had the amazingly

large hunk of wood that chipped off embedded in my skin. That and my stomach was doing cartwheels while my

face decided to become a pyromaniac and catch fire. He poked at the wound lightly, earning a hiss to escape my

lips and more tears come to my eyes and sighed. "Ouch" he muttered, running his thumb across my cheek

soothingly. Damn it! Why the hell did he have to make me feel like this!! He sighed and stood up, holding his

hand out to me and helped me up. But for some reason when I was on my feet, though staggering slightly, he

didn't let go of my hand. "Come on. Lets get back to the house and fix that. Though I cant guarantee that it

wont hurt a bit." he said, nodding to the vendor and sliding his arm around my waist, leading me back through

the crowded streets.

* * *

"OWWW!!" I bellowed as Syaoran carefully pulled the huge hunk of bloody wood from my face. He sighed, and 

flung it into the trash across the room. I whimpered, not caring anymore if I cried and let the tears roll freely. You

have no idea of how painful getting a chunk of wood ripped from your face is. Turning around, Syaoran grabbed

one of his tank tops and some white tape and sighed, ripping the bottom of the shirt and folding it a few times.

He dipped it in water and ran it across my face, then took another shred of fabric and pressed it against my

cheek, securing it with the white tape. I watched as the blood soaked through the shirt and wondered what on

earth my face looked like. A few minutes later, the tears subsided and I looked at my reflection in a mirror that

was laying broken in the hallway. The swatch of fabric on my face had turned a light pink, the whole left side of

my face scratched here and there, making me look like something out of a horror film. I sighed and returned to the

main room, where Syaoran was throwing the old ripped shirt in the fireplace for fuel later and watched as he

turned to face me. Expression-less for a moment, I was surprised that he smiled at me.

"Its not as bad as you think. It'll be fine" he said, walking over to me and rubbing my head, his fingers pulling

through my hair.

"Now come on, we have a little more getting to do before we go to the bridge, kay?" he said, talking to me

sweeter than he normally did. I nodded as he took my hand again, static running through my veins, and led me

out the door, still not letting go. It was then that something clicked. And it hit me like a lead balloon. Everything I

had been feeling, all the hatred towards Risa and all the stomach stuffs, wasn't because I was sick, or that I was

pissed at Risa for no reason. Though I wish it were because the truth smacked me in the face so hard, I think my

mom felt it. I liked Syaoran.

* * *

_**Short chapter I know, sorry! But I really wanted this to be one of those short, sweet and to the point things. **_

_**Anyways, HUZZAH!! We gots ourselves a crush! Hee! Poor Sakura though. That was brought to you by a **_

_**personal experience. Its not pleasant. Quite painful actually. Ahh, but I digress, anyways! Hope you liked it **_

_**and Review please! **_

_**And Until Next time!**_

__

Ja!

Kirra


	8. Chapter 7: Run

Chapter 7: Run 

That morning, we all got up in a pretty good mood. We all woke up to the best of our abilities and bid each other

goodbye, see you later. And we left. Same as every morning. Same as every day practically. And like every day,

Syaoran and I would stay out the day and get the most food, coming back at the end of the day later than the

others. So when we walked through the back door and saw that the fireplace was roaring and Kero was yipping

at our feet, everything seemed normal. I scratched my chin as careful as I could without running into my gouge,

and shrugged at the fact that it was so quiet, which was a bit unusual. It was never quiet, which is what worried

us a bit.

My face hurt, jaw was so tight and in so much pain I had decided not to talk, just nod and hum my

answers, but when I gasped at the sight before me, I didn't care that I jerked my jaw and made it sting, or that the

tears that rushed to my eyes due to the searing pain was spilling into my cut and making it hurt more. What I did

care about was that all of the furniture was overturned and broken, most of our things had been contributed to

the fire and there was a note pinned to the wall. And that nobody was here anymore. Syaoran snarled and ripped

the note from the wall, his eyes boring into it for a few minutes before slamming his hand against the wall and

hanging his head. "Wha…What's wrong?" I asked, stuttering due to my lack of jaw movement. He growled and

looked up.

"They're gone. All of them, the Police got them." he said angrily, sliding to the floor. I slid with him.

"But I thought you couldn't read? That none of us could?" I said confused as to how he knew that.

"I cant. But I recognize the paper. Its Police stationary. They use it to inform people of something bad. I saw it

when they told my aunt that she was getting custody of me because my parents were murdered. I saw it again

when they gave me over to the adoption center because my aunt didn't want me. And here it is again. All it ever

does is give bad news." He said, staring at his feet intently. I started to cry again, but it wasn't because of my

face.

"So…so they're not coming back? Any of them?" I asked, looking up at his face. He shook his head.

"Why?" Stupid question im sure, but I was a tad bit confused. He looked up at me like I was stupid, maybe I

was.

"Because those son of a bitches took them where we all ran away from. An Adoption center. If people don't like

something, they strive to change it. I bet somebody saw us come in here and sent the feds to do a raid of the

place. Came out with four hostages and two fugitives. Us. They aren't coming back. Ever." he finished, sinking

his head lower, but placing it on my shoulder. Oh crap, there goes my stomach, and my composure I suppose,

because about then I broke down and leaned my head on his shoulder, both of us sitting there, making it seem

like they all were involved in some heinous murder. It was a while before any of us decided to move from our

spot. Syaoran wiped his eyes in attempt to hide the fact that he was crying and I just wiped them because I

didn't feel like having things streak my face the rest of the night. He sat down in front of the fire and fished

through the bags of food, handing me an entire bag and beginning to eat himself, scarfing the food like it was the

last he'd have. But something stopped us somewhere. We were so accustomed to eating small portions that by

the time we had gotten there, it felt wrong to eat any more. So we gave the rest to Suppi and Kero, who were

more than happy to have a full stomach for once. We on the other hand, were content being empty.

* * *

People say that it doesn't hurt to die. Well what the hell do they know? They're not the ones dying. Of course it 

hurts. Maybe not the person who's already dead, they don't feel anything. But what about the people who have

to live the rest of their lives knowing that they will never see each other again? It hurts. But what hurts even

more is being torn from somebody, knowing that they are still out there. Still breathing the same air and staring at

the same big sky, wondering how the other person is doing. How would it feel to know that somewhere out

there, somebody is thinking about you, wondering where you are, and you cant do a damn thing about it? Yea, it

sucks, doesn't it? That's how Syaoran and I feel. And that's why we started sleeping so close to each other that

we can feel each others breath on our faces. Because if there's one thing we are trying to prevent, its us being

torn apart. That's why we've started going to a different area for food and why we never left each others side. I

don't think either of us could cope with the pain of turning around and seeing emptiness. Not seeing the other

person staring at you, hoping you don't disappear. So listen, cause this is how we almost disappeared.

It was about two or three days after the others were taken from us. We had vowed not to go near our normal

'hunting ground' and began looking in different areas. But since there was only us two and the animals, we

didn't have to go out every day and get food. So Today we had decided to just randomly walk about. It was

better than just sitting there and doing nothing, and we weren't in the position to sleep seeing as we were scared

as hell that something would happen. Anyways, we had not been paying close attention as to where we were

wandering, and it happened that we had gone into the one place we had vowed not to go. And low and behold,

The reason why was wandering freely about in front of us. About three or so feet from us was a rather large

group of cops, adorning their blue suits and black hats. And Huge black sunglasses to hide their empty hearts.

Before we could make for the other way, one of the cops had caught us out of the corner of his eye and signaled

his other men to get us. And they ran. After us. Two kids who were alone except for each other and all they

wanted to do was be together. Now that's cold.

I was first to get grabbed. I guess the feds were smarter than they thought because two of them ganged up

on Syaoran and the other slapped me straight across my cut, making me fall, giving him the chance to grab me

and run and giving Syaoran enough motive to take every ounce of pent up aggression out on the two men.

Through my tears I could see him getting farther away and crying my name. I shook my head angrily and began

to wiggle around, making it hard for him to run. I mean you try running with a squirming little thing in your arms

and tell me how it works for ya. As he slowed his pace, I had squirmed down far enough to get a good hold on

his hand with my teeth. He pulled away with a hiss, giving me the chance to fall and run as fast as my scrawny

legs could take me. As I came up over the hill I saw Syaoran standing there, but no cops. He had a few scrapes

and a blank, hollow expression. However, that went away and faded into a huge ass smile as soon as he saw me

running for him. He extended his hand and I grabbed hold of it, both of us running as fast as we could to get

away from the ascending cop, who was lumbering along, but at a rather hasty pace for a guy who probably

weighed at least 300 pounds. However, I found myself thanking God that this guy was fat and we were small and

sickly, because when we reared up on an alleyway that was unusually small, about big enough for a few

trashcans to cramp in, we squeezed through, making the cop stop and allowing us to keep on trucking while he

stood, trying to find another way to get to us. Behind the alleyway, there was a ladder leading up to the

rooftops. And It was also the only way out. So we clambered up there and began a roof hopping sequence that

lasted so long that we were on the outskirts of the city and the sun was laying wearily on the hills in front of us.

That's when we stopped and took a breather. Sliding down to the floor, Syaoran pulled me down with him and

pulled me into a hug. Sighing loudly into my hair, he breathed with relief and pulled away staring at me.

"I thought you were gone. How'd you get away?" he asked breathlessly. I shrugged and stared at the horizon.

"I bit the guys hand and ran. I didn't want the last thing I saw of you to be you beating the snot out of some

guys and calling for me. It didn't seem right." I said, leaning back against a wall. He smiled and leaned on my arm,

closing his eyes.

"Thanks." he muttered before sighing again and standing up, holding out his hand to help me up.

"We should go back to the bridge. They never found us there before, so I think we'll be safe there for now." he

said, pulling me to my feet. Unfortunately, I didn't make a perfect landing and stumbled into him, where upon he

just held on to me. It was nice, except for the fact that my stomach had decided to become a deranged Gymnast

again.

"Come on. Lets get the dog and cat and go. Its nighttime, so the fuzz should have given up by now." he said,

walking to the roofs edge holding my hand and jumping off to the ground below, which luckily, was a short two

feet's distance.

The Entire walk back to the house and then to the bridge, he never let go of my hand. And I didn't try to let

go. It was unusually comforting to know that he was next to me and scared enough to hold on. Sometime during

the course of the time we had gone to the house, they had bulldozed a huge mound of dirt into one side of the

bridge, making it more of a cave now. We dubbed it The Bat Cave because it had a huge amount of bats taking

up housing there. But they didn't bother us. At least not that night. We were so exhausted all we could do was

lob a loaf of bread to the other, crawl to the others side and crash on the single mattress we had left behind that

wasn't covered in dirt. The tarp was still there and Kero was good and didn't bark. So nobody would suspect we

were there. I hope. We fell asleep listening to each other breathe slowly, Syaoran's arm flung over my side and I

curled into him. He was long since asleep and im betting a thousand that he wouldn't care come morning.

* * *

_**OKAY! Chapter seven. Sorry this one is short too. But I promise they will get longer again. There is just only **_

_**so much I can put into a chapter at this point of the story. Anyways, there's a bit more fluff for you! Hurrah! **_

_**Okay then, so until next time!**_

__

Ja!

Kirra


	9. Chapter 8: Gone

Chapter 8: Gone 

Well. It happened. We disappeared. It wasn't supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be all of us, together,

like one big, street rat family .We would have each others backs and live as normally as possible. But then the

cops came and fucked up everything. They took everyone except for Syaoran and me. Who were left for three

weeks without our family. We had learned a great deal about each other in that time seeing as all we had was

each other. But then everything changed. I suppose your wondering what the hell im complaining about. Well,

let me go back about a week, and explain how exactly we pulled our disappearing act.

The bridge had once again become home. But we made due. We didn't have to worry about sleeping space,

most of the time, only one person was sleeping at a time anyways. And we stayed so close to each other that

personal space was no longer a concern. The animals were gone. Sometime during the course of our second

bridge stay, Animal Control came and got them. I got really sad and sometimes cried myself to sleep because I

didn't have Suppi sleeping on my head or Kero laying on my right leg, making it numb. Syaoran said it was for

the better because they were in a shelter where they would get fed and Kero would get that gunk in his eye

cleared out and that somebody nice would adopt them and they would never go hungry. That didn't make

anything better, it just meant that somebody else would have them to cuddle with and not me, who really needed

them. Syaoran and I got to talking one night and I made the mistake of asking how he got onto the streets. Well,

it wasn't really a mistake, he just got all emotional and came almost to crying point a few times. His story was a

sad one. My story wasn't even as sad as his. Syaoran had come from a somewhat wealthy family, he was kid

seven, with six identical twin sisters that were older than him. Well, they went off to college and when they did,

he became the center of his mothers rantings and occasional beatings. His father had died a while back, he was

murdered by his secretary who he was having an affair with. And when he chose his family over her, she flipped

and shot him then shot herself. When his mom found out, she went into this phase where everything Syaoran

did reminded her of him and she grew to hate him. She starting calling him by his fathers name and throwing

things at him, calling him a devil child. It got so bad that she forgot who he was and one morning she woke up

and got so scared that there was some kid in the house she ran out into the middle of the street, right into and

oncoming truck.

Syaoran was sent to live with his aunt and cousin, Mei Lin. But it was obvious that they didn't want him, so

he ran. He somehow wound up in the city where he met Eriol, who was living in a ditch off of route two and thus,

this whole vagabond organization of his was formed. Then I came in and well, you know the rest. We had been

living under the bridge for about two weeks now and were running low on food. So the two of us woke up early

one Thursday and went out, to grab a few things, about how much we normally snatch would feed us for about a

week, maybe two now since the animals weren't here. But that wasn't…wasn't the point. Goddammit, I hate

retelling things, I thing the Hoover dam just erupted through my eyes. Ugh. Anyways. We had been out for a

couple of hours and when we came back, it was probably a little after noon by the time we got near the bridge.

Syaoran had a hunch that something wasn't right, the tarp had moved positions from when we left. But it was

windy, so we shrugged it off. That was the worst mistake we ever made. Syaoran grabbed my hand and we

walked inside only to be welcomed by a resounding 'aww' from voices we didn't recognize. Looking up from our

feet, we saw the familiar and ever hated blue uniforms we had come to despise.

"Shit…" Syaoran mumbled, holding my hand tighter.

"Yea, that about sums it up. We've been looking for you, you know. You've been very bad." the one said with

the tone like he was talking to a child. I frowned.

"Do you have a speech impediment? Why the hell are you talking like that?" I spat, glaring at him angrily.

"Ohhh. Lil mouse has an attitude. I think we may have to fix that." he said with a sly grin. Syaoran growled and

his defensive mode kicked in, but soon wore away when they pulled out guns. That's not something anyone

wants to go up against. He stepped down and frowned. The two cops laughed and pointed them at us.

"Now…" they said; "You have two choices, you can either be good kids and follow us to the car, where we'll

have you put up for adoption and nobody gets hurt, or we can do it our way, where you two get shot and sent

to a hospital before being adopted, either way works for us." He grunted, unlocking the gun and cocking it so

that one false move would send us flying through the air impaled by bullets. We didn't say anything, so the

other cop, a chubby guy with a Hitler mustache and a goatee took it upon himself to cause a ruckus. He smiled

and that was all it took. I didn't know that there was another cop behind us, and he whapped me in the head with

a rather large rock, sending me to the ground, my vision blurring, I heard a gunshot and Syaoran yelping then

everything went black.

* * *

Adoption centers are all the same. You get food and shelter, some clothes and a bed, but nothing else. And this

place wasn't run by a beast of a woman with blue hair and a rump that threatened to kill you if you stood behind

her. No, this place was strict. There were censors on all of the windows and the only way you could get in or out

of the building was if they buzzed you through with a doorbell and security cameras. I think I have tried about

five times to get out of this hell hole, and every single time, I was caught and brought back by this peppy freak

who kept calling my outbursts ' a cry for attention' . Yea, well go with that. Let them think what they want, I

know the truth and that's about all that matters. However, I've stopped trying. There was no point in any of it.

Syaoran was gone. The only thing that kept me hanging on was probably dead, and if he wasn't, is probably in

the same position I am. I kept mostly to myself. I didn't talk to anybody but the shrink, who I was mandated to

see because they thought I was mental and the chef, who was supposed to sneak pills…something called

Riddelin… into my food, but didn't because she understood my dilemma. She was actually a cool person. I

would sometimes sneak down to the kitchen past curfew and talk to her. She gives me vanilla ice cream

sometimes and tells me about when she was a little girl. Her names Bridget. I think she's my only somewhat

friend here, but she's an adult and probably is just taking pity on me. The shrink, who says that I am

'emotionally unstable and suffering from trauma' is also my schoolteacher. He teaches me how to read and do

math. There's really no sense in it. However I do like reading. I pick up on things quick so I surprised him when I

started leafing through some of the psychology books he had. I didn't understand a lick of what they were

saying in those things, but I gave me something to do. He says that math is like a second nature to me. Actually

its just easy as hell. He says that because of my 'condition' I pick up on things quicker to cope with the pain.

Yea ok. We'll go with that for a while. Part of its true though. If I get distracted by the books or the numbers, I

don't think about everyone so often and wonder weather their alive and safe or dead somewhere. So I suppose

he was right. About this at least. And maybe about the emotionally unstable and traumatized thing too. Well

he's a shrink so I suppose he would know. Damn I'm messed up.

Today somebody is coming to visit with me. Apparently they create profiles of every person here and post

it in the newspaper. Then, potential adopters are found and they meet with the adoptee's a few times or however

many it takes to decide weather they want to adopt or not. I'm meeting this couple from upstate New York. I

guess the woman is unable to have kids, but they really want one. Only, they want someone older. Like my age.

Its odd because most people come in here looking for babies or toddlers. You see a few people my age get

adopted once in a while, but hardly ever someone older than me. So I've concluded that if you're an orphan, 16

is the age people stop caring about you. Everyone says I'm lucky that im being visited. The girls helped me get

all prettied up to make a good impression. So at about three o clock, (I learned to tell time too, and not by the

position of the sun…) I came downstairs wearing a light blue sweater and a black pair of pants. My hair was back

in a little ponytail. It was more like a nub because one of the first things I did when I got here was cut my hair to

just below my ears. It didn't look too bad actually and to be honest, I had forgotten how light my hair was when

clean. But I digress. The couple waiting for me was sitting in the other room. I walked in slowly and nodded to

them, sitting down opposite of them. The woman smiled widely and gripped her husbands hand.

"Oh she's precious" she whispered, thinking I couldn't hear her. But I did and I smirked a little, amused by the

compliment.

"Hi there!" she began, leaning forward, propping her elbows on her knees.

"Hi" I said politely. I figured that these people might just be my only ticket out of here, so I better make the best

of it.

"I'm Emily, and this is my husband Eric." she introduced, nodding to her husband, who smiled and nodded. The

two looked rather young, probably in their early thirties, and they looked upper crust. Like they never had to

worry about money. Good for them.

"I'm Sakura" I said with a light smile. Emily gasped.

"Ohhh! That is such a pretty name! Does it mean anything?" she asked, her eyes twinkling. She kind of scared

me.

"Um, yea. Its Japanese for Cherry Blossom." I said with a nod, getting more comfortable with the surroundings.

It was Eric's turn to make a fuss.

"Ah, right! Your from Japan, I read it on the profile. That's a beautiful name…Sakura." He complimented. I think I

blushed, I wasn't used to this may compliments, but hey, if they want to, be my guest, im not about to stop them.

I nodded and unfolded my hands, pushing the chair forwards a little.

"But your English is so perfect…how?" Emily asked curiously. I smiled and stared at my hands. But they had to

move, I needed to wipe my eyes.

"um…I had a good teacher. The one person I was with on the streets…Syaoran, he taught me." I said with more

fondness in my tone than I had intended. Emily smiled.

"Aw. You liked him then?" she asked, striking a very personal boundary, but I didn't care. I nodded and smiled.

"Yeah, I did. Very much." Both of them smiled and nodded.

"Well, maybe you'll see him again some day?" Eric put in, I shook my head.

"I don't know. Probably not." I sighed, wiping my eyes again. Emily slouched a little bit and took my hand.

"Don't say that. it's a small world. It may happen. Now then. I read on your profile…you were emotionally

traumatized. I really don't want to go into things that make you uncomfortable, but may I ask what happened?"

she questioned. Well at least she was polite about it.

"um. My mom and I came over here when my father passed away. But The ship kind of blew up and she died." I

said, keeping it short. The couple gasped and began their two minutes of 'ohmigod's and 'that's so terrible!' I

shrugged.

"Yea… But what's past is past. Life goes on you know? Que sera sera. Whatever happens happens. No use

dwelling on the past." I said, surprising myself with that burst of confidence. Emily's eyes grew wide and she

smiled.

"Wow. How mature of you!" she gaped. I shrugged again. Eric checked his watch and sighed.

"Well. Unfortunately our time is almost up. So I suppose we should say good bye for now" he said, standing up,

and helping his wife up.

"Ohhh. It was very good to meet You Sakura. Well see you soon." she said, pulling me into a hug before leaving

with her husband. I smiled in spite of myself and followed after them.

* * *

_**Ohhh kay. That's chapter 8! Huzzah! That was a major chapter. And OHMYFUUKINGAWD. This amazed me **_

_**a bit…I didn't have any major fluff as a goodbye thing!! Wow. Anyways. This is NOT the last chapter. If It **_

_**was I think people would kill me. No, there's plenty more to come. So stick around and review please!! I do **_

_**so love them!**_

__

Chapter 9 up soon Until next time

Ja!

Kirra


	10. Chapter 9: Adoption Papers

Chapter 9: Adoption papers. 

A couple of weeks had passed and every ounce of hope that those two would come for me had pretty much

diminished. There was another couple here today looking for a teenage daughter. I just got done talking to them.

They were pleasant, but very stuck up and snooty. Its like they lived by some sort of secret code that they

couldn't break or they would be sent to the gallows. I didn't like them as much as the other two. And I'm fairly

positive they weren't all that fond of me either, so it was a mutual feeling.

I was sitting at the window in the front room when the headmistress came barreling through the doors with a

smallish amount of papers in her hand. I don't think I've told you about her yet. She's much better than the other

one and doesn't have a rear end the size of a freight train. She insists that everybody call her Lisa. And actually

cares weather you leave or not. Unlike Mrs. Caboose at the penitentiary. Anywho, she came barreling through

the doors with these papers and an unusual and highly frightening grin on her face. She rushed over to me and

sat down, staring at me with huge brown eyes. She shoved the papers in my face and laughed.

"You…my sweet, sweet cherry blossom, are going home. The couple who saw you a couple of weeks ago are

here again. They want to adopt you." I could tell she was far to happy about this due to what she called me. On

normal conditions, I would have frowned and grumbled about her calling me that, but this was different. My eyes

grew wide and in spite of myself, a huge grin played across my face. Hallelujah!!! God bless you sweet stranger,

God bless you! I finally get to leave this not-so-much-of-a-hell-hole. I stood up and walked into the other room.

There stood Emily and Eric, signing a couple more papers and turning to smile at me when I walked in.

"Hey!" Emily said, walking over to me. She smiled down at me and sighed.

"So. What do you think? Willing to let us take a whack at raising you?" she said with a grin. I nodded. It was

about the only thing I could do. I was otherwise speechless and unusually happy. I remember I had promised

myself that I wouldn't stoop to this, but now that its here, I think everything I had made myself do got washed

away. Its stupid to mope around for things I clearly cant change with my frustrations. So I might as well enjoy it.

I smiled at Eric and sighed. Emily grinned. There seemed to be a lot of that going around lately.

* * *

After about 5 minutes of me grabbing what few belongings I had, my blanket, the four outfits I actually owned

and a shiny rock I had found walking around with Syaoran, I ran downstairs and skidded to a halt in the lobby,

where the two were getting their coats on. Lisa smiled and wiped her eye.

"Be good hmm? No trying to run out the windows and find your friends hmm? I'm sure they are all fine." she

said and I chuckled.

"Kay. I won't. Promise." I said, shifting my belongings to the other arm. Lisa gave me a hug, which was slightly

awkward and sighed.

"Have fun!" she said as we turned around and left. There was a bright yellow taxi waiting for us in the driveway.

I've never been in one, but I heard from Eriol that really weird people drive them. We all slid into the back and

Eric muttered to the dark guy with a mustache driving where to go. I got to sit by the window So most of my

attention was directed towards outside, but I still listened to the two so I could answer any questions they

decided to fling at me. We started passing places I used to travel and sometimes I would smile or something

when we passed a usual stalking area. It felt weird to fly by all of this. I was so used to lumbering along that I

didn't really pay attention to anything but food. I don't think I'll ever have to worry about food again. The taxi

man turned onto a side street that I was fairly certain led to the highway and saw something terribly amusing. So

funny in fact that I burst out laughing and Emily freaked out and squealed that I had a really cute laugh. The last

person to tell me that was Syaoran. Anyways, walking down a street, dressed in little prissy outfits, with some

stern looking adults behind them, was Takashi and Risa. They looked none too happy and I think just got out of

church. Takashi glanced over my way and I saw his eyes get all big and he nudged Risa, but before he could say

anything, his head was whapped by the guy behind him and he shut up.

"What were you laughing about?" Emily asked, turning to face me. I smiled.

"Those two kids walking were two of the kids that lived with us on the street. I hate them. Looks like they got

what they wanted though." I said with a grin. They looked miserable. Emily smiled a little and wrapped her arm

around my shoulder, which was unusually comforting.

About an hour or so of sitting in the smelly cab paid off. We pulled up in front of a huge, nay, massive

house. I seriously would probably get lost in that place. At first I thought that the driver was just admiring the

house, but then Emily and Eric got out. My jaw dropped, I think.

"Um…This is…" I said, slightly speechless. Eric was the one to talk this time. He smiled widely and nodded.

"Yea, this is where we live. Emily and I both have highly rewarding jobs. I work as the head journalist for the

New York Times, and Emily works as an accountant…ah, somebody who handles a lot of peoples money

things." He said, clarifying what was obviously being asked in my blank expression. Emily nodded and grabbed

my things out of the trunk.

"Um, can I ask what's with the rock, Sakura?" she said, holding it up to the light. I smiled.

"I found it when me and Syaoran were walking about. He said it reminded him of my eyes, being such a weird

shade of green. I kept it cause I thought it looked cool." I said, walking up to her and sliding the piece of rock out

of her hand. Emily grinned and squeaked a little bit.

"That, is so cute! I really hope you find him someday." she said, turning around and linking her arm through

mine, leading me to the house.

"Me too." I muttered.

The house….sweet ghost of William McKinley, was HUGE. I cant even being to fathom how big exactly it

is, but I recall something about it having five bedrooms and four bathrooms. I nearly cried at this. It has been so

long since I had used an actual working toilet, it wasn't even funny. I mean, sure the orphanage had them, but

oft-times, they never worked or were clogged up or something. It was gross. And showers, Sweet Jesus, lovely

hot running working showers. At the orphanage we had to take baths, which were pointless because we were

basically sitting in essence of smelly pre-teen. It was anything but pleasant. Then came My room. That's right,

Mine. A room I can call my own. It was massive, like everything else in the house (I swear you can waltz in the

bathrooms if you so desired to do so.) The walls were an off-white, cream color, there was a bed that would

probably hold two of me comfortably, which was tucked away into a rather large alcove, that harbored a window

that looked out over rolling fields. There were hardwood floors throughout, a dresser, closet, and desk, and a full

body mirror. Looking in it I got a grasp of how skinny I really was. You could see my ribs and my hair was very

knotty. Where my eyes sat, they were slightly sunken into the sockets, which were hued a strange, ghostly

purple. I was also pale, but that was from lack of sunlight.

I got a tour of the rest of the house and was astonished by everything, there was a huge kitchen with one of

those island things in the middle and the kitchen connected to a huge dining room that had a bunch of picture

windows that looked out over the same fields you could see from my room. The living room was carpeted in a

mint green type of carpet and was adorned with a couch, loveseat and a couple of plush chairs. Along with the

regular, family room stuffs. Radio, Television, all that stuff. They had a porch in their back yard that extended to

a rather large in-ground pool and a few steps that led out to the fields. It was, to simply put it, the closest I could

get to Heaven on Earth.

* * *

Emily and Eric have decided that after me and Emily go shopping for clothes( I've come to realize in the few

hours we've been together, that this woman an crazy when It comes to clothes) we are going out to dinner, sort

of as a welcome home thingy. So Emily and I walked out to her car and we were whisked off to the mall, where I

think I must have been bombarded with so many new clothes, I could have made an entire room out of them if I

were to stack them in piles. Emily paid for it all with some little plastic thing. I think she said it was a credit card.

But hell if I know, I was too busy drooling over the bags to take much notice in what she was saying.

Around 4 o clock, we got home, I took a shower and changed clothes and found that if I put my short and

choppy hair in little pigtails an leave the rest hanging down, it looks pretty adorable. Not adorable in the

"oooooohhh look! That puppy is soooo adorable!" More like a "Damn… that girl is fine.." Kind of adorable. If

that makes any sense at all. So as I rushed downstairs, Emily shoved a pair of black boots into my stomach, and

smiled as I sat down and shoved them on my feet. A little big, but I think I will grow into them, and they looked

really good. So we walked out of the door and into yet another car, this one different than the one Emily and I

took to the mall. About 20 or so minutes later, we pulled up to some fancy French restaurant who's name I

couldn't pronounce and walked inside. The girl standing at the front door smiled at us and asked us 'how

many?'…like it wasn't obvious. Unless Emily had some elves in that massive bag of hers, there were only three

of us. Eric responded with the correct number and the girl smiled and began walking away. Confused a little bit.

Emily and Eric followed, so I followed them, figuring it would be the best thing to do.

She led us to a smallish booth at the far end of the room and we all slid in. Menus were handed to us and

some utensils wrapped in fancy cloth napkins. Ooh, Swanky. Now, here comes the fun part. What the frell does

all of this mean? I mean of course I can read, but its all quite confusing. Realizing my complex, Emily looked down

at her menu, then pointed to one of the items on the list.

"You should get this. Its really good." she said, adding a slight grunt in emphasis to her 'really'. I nodded and

read it.

_Chicken parmesan. Lightly breaded chicken breast covered in marinara sauce, fettuccini pasta and a heart _

_portion of parmesan cheese._

Well. It sounded good, but you cant eat sounds, now can you? Almost as if on cue, a girl walked up to our table,

her face hidden behind strangely familiar black hair. She looked up from her pad of paper and smiled.

"Hi! Im Tomoyo and I'll be your waitress for this evening. Can I start you folks off with something to…holy shit.

Sakura???" I looked up, I heard my name. Staring down at me was Tomoyo, none the less chubby than she had

been, in fact she looked thinner, but still, it was her. My jaw dropped again. It was doing that a lot. I stood up

and grinned. Then, at almost the same time, we squealed girlishly and grabbed each other into a strangling hug.

* * *

_**Righty-o! CLIFFHANGER! Hoorah. YAY TOMOYO!! And some Takashi, Risa torture. Not so much torture, **_

_**just torment I suppose. A little slice of pain. Hehe. Well, how did you like it? Good? Bad? Indifferent? **_

_**"Ohmygod, this chapter sucks, go get a life"? Well, tell me what you think!! Yea, its likfe 11 at night and im **_

_**wired on pepsi, cut me some slack! Oh, you can infer for yourself what time period theyre in, i didnt really **_

_**give it too much thought. Also, for a better idea of what Sakura looks like, for those who read it, give her your **_

_**mental image of the Cullen family from Twilight and New Moon!**_

_** Okay, so…yea, REVIEW!!! And Chapter 10 up soon! **_

_**So until next time!**_

__

Ja!

Kirra


	11. Note to all readers

Hey all. Im sorry to say that I will not be updating my stories for a while. I am unfortunately

very sick with a Sinus infection and a Pseudo-tumor if the brain. For those of you who don't

know what that is, it is a rare disease where upon your brain acts like it would if there were a

tumor there, but there really Is no tumor. I need to have a Spinal Tap done and perhaps

brain surgery to fix it. I promise you this is no joke. I would never joke about something as

serious as my life. I have double vision, severe back and headaches, and am highly

medicated, so it is taking a lot out of me just to sit here and type this out. But I thought I

should give you all the courtesy of knowing why there aren't any recent updates to my

stories. Again, I apologize and as soon as I am feeling better I will update my stories. Until

then, Ja!

Kirralle Hazayaki


	12. Chapter 10: Tomoyo

_**I am back!!! YAY!!! NO MORE SICKIES!! Ugh, it was horrible, I got shoved in a hospital **_

_**for nine days, where I had to get two spinal taps, an MRI, an IV that had to stay in my **_

_**arm for 5 days ( Left a pretty interesting scar) and everyone treated me like I was two. But **_

_**im back and better and ready to type like there's no tomorrow. To prove such wantings, **_

_**I've posted a new story!! Its Cardcaptors, and amazing. Or it will be amazing as soon as I **_

_**get more chapters up, but if your up for a good read, check it out, cause its gonna be good. **_

_**Anywho, ON WITH THE STORY eh???!!**_

Chapter 10: Tomoyo

"Soooo… You got adopted, then?" Tomoyo asked quizzically, twirling a strand of raven black hair

around her finger. I half smiled and nodded. "Yea, that's Emily and Eric…" I said pointing to each

of them, both giving a smile and nod in return. "Lucky." she mumbled under her breath. I didn't

catch it however, so when I asked again, she shrugged it off as nothing. "SO! I need details woman.

How on earth…did you and Syaoran get caught?? We were holding bets as to how far that kid

would go to protect you." she said smiling, crackling her gum in the process. I raised an eyebrow at

the bets remark, but pushed it off to the side. "Um. Well. When we realized you four got caught, we

went back to the bridge, figuring they may come back for us. We stayed there for about two

weeks, and one day when we were coming back from wandering about randomly, we found two

cops waiting for us. They didn't even really talk, they just got straight to trying to get us. We both

put up a fight but one of the cops pulled out a gun as the other whapped me on the head with a

rock. I heard the gun go off and then I passed out." I said, staring at the table as if I were in a daze.

Tomoyo sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "So then… Syaoran, he's"

"NO! No…well…at least I hope he's not…dead. He might have just shot the gun to scare us. I

don't know. But Anywho, that's my story. What about you!? How did somebody like me…end up

working in some swanky restaurant?" I said, poking her in the ribs. She smiled and squirmed away,

making me grin in the process. "Ok, one, this place is far from 'swanky'…whatever that means. I

like that word though. You should see the back of the place. Not pretty. And two…I only work

here because the orphanage I live at is making me work, im the lucky one, 16. Too old to be

adopted in our eyes. So I have to work to live there until im 18 and can leave the dump. That place

is crazy." She said shaking her head. "The headmistress is some UGLY old bat of a woman with a

blue beehive hairdo and a rear end the size of a small freight train." She said, disgusted. I laughed. I

knew exactly where she was and who that beast of a woman was. She was at my old orphanage,

the hell-hole I escaped from. Poor thing. I cant believe that woman is still alive though! She looked

about eighty when I was there. But I digress. There was something a little bit more personal I had to

ask. "What about Eriol?" I said, hopefully. At this, she frowned. Oh damn, frowns weren't what I

had expected. "They separated us. Damn bastards. We begged to stay together because we were

the only ones we had for each other. And they laughed at us and pulled us apart. I haven't seen him

since." I was shocked. Not only that people had been so mean, but that Tomoyo actually swore. I

had never heard the woman utter a curse in her life…and here she was… a potty mouth. Shame.

Although I had absolutely NO room to talk, I suppose. But I got my sailors tongue from Syaoran…

Eriol never swore…much…either. So…anyways, rambling. I tend to do that a lot. Tomoyo sighed

and played with a fork that was balancing on the edge of the table. "Anyways. Ohh…you have no

idea how good it is to see you." she said happily, leaning her head on my shoulder. I smiled and

hugged her. "you too! Now, lets not lose each other again eh? Hey, maybe we'll find the others?? I

already saw Takashi and Risa…" I said with a grin. "You did? Where? How are they? Not that I

really cared much for those two, but still." she said, lifting her head up.

"I only saw them for a second in the taxi, we passed them. They were walking side by side, with im

assuming, their parents behind them. They were wearing these funny little suit thingies. Uniforms I

guess. It was hilarious. They looked miserable." I laughed. Tomoyo smiled and let out a stifled

laugh.

"That's rich… I love that." she said sighing. Looking at her watch she sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Ugh. I gotta get back to work. Um. You'll…you'll come see me again right?" she asked, twiddling

her fingers, kind of like a nervous twitch.

"Of course! Im not just gonna go gallivanting off somewhere and leave you forever! That…that

would be mean. No, I'll come visit you. I know where you live too!" I added, making her grin

again. She nodded and gave me a quick hug before running off, waving behind her.

* * *

**_Mmkay, ima gonna cut it off here. Shureee. Its short. But, it's a chapter! That means _**

**_theres more to come! I promise! So yea, I suppose that is it for now, so until next time!_**

****

Ja!

Kirra


	13. Chapter 11:The not so futuristic future

Chapter 11: The not so futuristic future. 

I remember everyone saying how great the future would be. Cars would be door less, goop

things that would fly and cancer would be a thing of the past. Wow, how people were

wrong. There are no flying cars…no crazy cures for cancer, not even for the fricking cold.

Nothing hovers and nobody lives on the moon. Everything is pretty much the same. Cars run

a little easier and the city has gotten a heck of a lot busier. There aren't any more street

vendors…well, you have the occasional hotdog vendor on the corner and the newspapers,

but that's about it. And if there are vendors, the food is under lock and key. I guess they got

tired of scum like us taking everything. I suppose I should explain a few things, that may help

a bit.

Well, its about the 5th of September, 2004. I managed to stay with Emily and Eric, who

schooled me enough to get the job I have today. I have regularly gone and visited Tomoyo,

who had the dashing rescue I've dreamed of. I'll start there I suppose.

You of course, remember our sappy reunion, the hugging and squealing when we were

about 16 years or so. I had kept my promise and visited her as often as I could, until one

day, her eighteenth birthday actually, I had gotten word that she had randomly quit, nobody

sure of where she went. It wasn't until about two hours later that I had figured out that After

about 7 months of looking, Eriol had found out where Tomoyo was. He just bust right into

the restaurant and swept her off her feet, almost literally. Last I knew, they were engaged…

well, at least that's what I am understanding from Tomoyo, who has yet to remover her hand

from the violated two inches of my face, hoping I am ogling the rock on her hand as much as

she is.

"Ohh, its so amazingly beautiful! Isn't it?" She squealed for about the eight time, Eriol

grinning from behind us, rocking back on his chair a bit.

"Yes Tomoyo, its gorgeous, as I've said for about a million times. Now please remove your

ring from my cornea and sit down. Your such a spaz." I sighed, shrugging her away from me

and sitting down, watching her frown and sit down next to her fiancé. Eriol smiled. Which

was unusual today, because normally these meetings of ours never bode well.

"So? Any news? ASIDE from the fact that your getting married" I blurted, hoping to stop

Tomoyos desperate attempts for attention. Eriol shrugged.

"Only that he called me the other day from his apartment in New York City." He said the

grin on his face growing wider, showing a few white specks of teeth. I think I stopped

breathing at that point, It took the annoyance of the neighbors baby screaming to snap me

back.

"New York City?" I asked, making sure I didn't here him wrong. Ne nodded and folded his

hands across his stomach.

"Yup. But, don't get your hopes up Sakura, there's like a million people in the city. I was

lucky I found Tomoyo. Who knows what your outcome may be." he said, staring at me

firmly. I nodded.

" I know. But at least there may be some chance that I could see him. Just for a moment to

know that he's alive would be enough for me." I shrugged, Tomoyo scoffed and rolled her

eyes.

"oh please, you cant possibly tell me that if you saw him you wouldn't hesitate a second to

fling yourself at him, tackling him to the ground." she laughed. I threw my shoe at her.

"OWW. But seriously. What if he has somebody? Hmm? What if, by some completely

NORMAL chance he moved on?? What you two did while we were gone, though

unbeknownst to us completely, from what you said, it wasn't anything special. Eriol and I,

we were different." Tomoyo said, shrugging and sipping her iced tea.

"Thank you Tomoyo. For your warm insight. But I suppose your right. He's probably

forgotten all about me… it was like, practically ten years ago. He's probably married and

completely happy. Last thing he needs is some bad memory bothering him." I said, choking

on my words a bit.

"Um. Okay, I have to go to work. Soooo, you know where the door is." I muttered, getting

up and walking inside. I could have sworn I heard Eriol scolding her, but I could have been

wrong.

* * *

Journalism was one of the top jobs to have right now, and I was one of the lucky people to

have said job. I say lucky in a semi-negative way, because in all reality, this jobs a crock.

Sure, doing all the digging and whatnot for a story is great fun, but the whole typing gig and

the million drafts and edits you have to go through is so insane, by the time your actually

finished, the article is almost nothing like what you had in mind to begin with. Today, when I

was called into the head honcho's office, I was expecting some stupid cover of the

salmonella outbreak in the sushi district. I was pleasantly surprised, however, when I

discovered that was to write about something I knew all too well about. Orphans. My boss,

her name is Laci, by the way, received the option to do a cover story on the perils of Orphan

kids a couple days ago, and the first person to come to mind to write this story was me.

Mainly because she knew my background and knew what I had gone through. So basically,

I was to write an expose on my childhood and teenage years. However, I was to make it in

the form of an anecdote or something, while the rest of the article was statistics, facts, myths,

all that jazz. And it had to be a thousand words, due on her desk by Monday. Ouch.

Considering it was Wednesday, I was gonna have to bust my ass for this one.

Starting out with the easy part, I got the research done in about a day and a half. It was

surprising that the number of orphans has increased so flipping much, but not because of a

logical cause like death, but because their parents disown them. They basically decide that

they don't want um anymore and chuck the kids out on the streets. Luckily, there are more

kids in orphanages or foster homes than there are in the streets anymore. Not so much like it

was when I was on the streets. But I think I wouldn't have cared either way, I probably

would have found myself on the streets again anyway.

I sat at my computer desk, mindlessly tapping my pen on the desk and wracking my brain

for things I could use in my article. The research was done, now all I had to do was figure

out which parts about our childhood I was willing to make public. And then, like in the

cartoons, a light bulb flashed and everything fell into place. I knew exactly what to write and

how to phrase it. Swiveling my chair around to face the monitor and keyboard, I grinned and

began typing;

**A Place to Call Home**

_ Sakura Kinomoto_

_(Authors Note_

_When my boss came to me asking me to write a hard hitting story about orphans, I_

_ was only __too happy to do it. But not because it might score me a few extra brownie _

_points as a journalist, but because I have been there.)_

_You look around you and see the every day hustle and bustle of the city. Taxis and _

_Cars caught in the never-ending traffic jams. Newspaper and hotdog vendors making _

_a living, families, couples and the like traversing the ever busy streets. But what about _

_what goes on behind the normalcy? What about that shadow you think you saw out of _

_the corner of your eye, but was gone when you turned to get a better look? Was it a _

_trick of light? A mugger? Thieves, rapists, murderers? Hardly. What you thought you _

_saw was no trick of light, but a child. An Orphan. _

_We live in a society today where if we don't want it to exist, it doesn't. Or so we think. _

_Take a moment to realize that there have been countless times where you have _

_disregarded something because you couldn't accept it. The truth remains that it _

_doesn't go away. Its still there, still posing a problem for everyone, whether you _

_choose to realize it or not. That's how people are dealing with today's homeless. At _

_least 9 percent of all homeless people are children, parentless for some reason or _

_another. Forced to scavenge the streets in order to stay alive. Sure there are the lucky _

_ones who were found and placed up for adoption, but what about those that remain _

_hidden? I'm sure nobody notices them. _

_In 2003, most of the reported robberies, break ins, and the like, were committed by _

_children. That same year, at least 100 children were taken from the streets and into _

_Orphanages and Foster homes, but that still left a good 100 more out there to fend for _

_themselves. By December 2003, one out of every four dead bodies found on the streets _

_or in the alleys, was that of a child, killed by the harsh New York winters. Now, in _

_2004, statistics have found that the number of children on the streets has lessened a _

_bit, but is still at a high number. I make such a big deal about this because I know _

_what it is like to survive the harsh winters and scavenge for food. If you'll listen, I _

_have a story to tell you._

_ When I was five, my father passed away and my mother and I sailed a ship to America _

_from Japan, my home country. During our trip, one of the boilers exploded and 500 _

_people, one of them being my mother were killed. That left me orphaned. I was taken _

_in by the social services, they found that I had no family here and none back home, so _

_they placed me in an orphanage. But to me, it was more like a prison (Literally, the _

_building was a converted jailhouse from the '20s). I had no friends, spoke little English _

_and was somewhat of an outcast. So I ran. And I became another statistic, brought to _

_survive on the streets as an orphan. _

_However, it was the streets I grew accustomed to. Getting food wasn't too hard, _

_granted I had to steal it. And soon enough, I was taken in by a band of Vagabond _

_orphans like myself, just trying to survive. I wont tell you their names, they know who _

_they are and that's all that matters. But anyways. I lived with them for a good five _

_years. Yes, five years, when I was thirteen. Five years of going unnoticed by anyone, _

_not even the cops. We had made home an old bridge and then later, a building _

_scheduled for demo. We survived by dividing into groups and going out to 'hunt', to _

_nab whatever we could, by any means necessary._

_ By the time I was thirteen, public awareness of street children had grown strong, and _

_soon, there were police around almost 24/7 making sure to grab any 'street rats' so _

_they called us. The summer of my thirteenth year, the police had found most of the _

_people in our group and taken them to an orphanage. That left me an one other _

_person, we grew very cautious to stay away from the cops at any cost and grew very _

_protective of each other. But not even that was enough. We eventually got caught and _

_sent to the one place we didn't want to end up; an Orphanage. _

_We were separated the six of us, none of us were sent to the same place and in time, _

_we all got adopted. I went to an amazing couple, who I proudly call my parents. They _

_welcomed me with open arms and took me in as their own, not thinking twice about _

_who I was or where I had been, what I had done. That was 10 years ago. About that _

_time I was reunited with one of the people I traveled with, she was still in an _

_orphanage, but I was rooting for her. She never got adopted. However, she was swept _

_off of her feet by the one person she loved, who happened to be another of our group. _

_I have since kept contact with them and see them regularly. I briefly saw two others of _

_the group, but never got the chance to talk, I only hope their lives turned for the _

_better. As for one, the leader of the group, we still have yet to find him. Though I know _

_he's out there somewhere._

_ My point in all of this is quite simple. And if I may say it so bluntly: being an orphan _

_sucks. Take a second and imagine what it would be like to hide in the dark and smelly _

_alleys of New York, to know that you are alone in the world, no parents to hold you _

_and tell you everything will be okay. Then imagine living in an orphanage where you _

_have to share everything (And I do mean EVERYTHING) with at least fifty other kids,_

_ all of whom are waiting to get out of there because the owner of the buildings goal is_

_ to get rid of you, like your not worth their time. Its terrible right? No child should live _

_like that, we've enough problems in the world already, lets not force the children to _

_endure the same issues. _

_(If you want to know more about Orphanages, Orphans, Foster care, or adopting a _

_child, do not hesitate to call your residential social services office.)_

I saved the file and printed it out immediately, rushing up the three flights of stairs to Laci's

office, where she was just getting ready to head home.

"LACI!" I said, startling her a bit.

"Sweet Genius Sakura…scare me out of my skin why don't you. What's up?" she asked as

I handed her my article.

"Done?? Already? Man, Sakura, I think you just broke some sort of record somewhere.

Alright, come on in, ill take a look at it." I nodded and followed her inside. Sitting down at

her desk, she sighed and placed the papers in front of her, beginning to read. I sat there

patiently and somewhat anxious. I really hoped all I needed was one draft. That was

practically confirmed when I saw a tear fall onto the paper. Laci gets very emotional on

topics like these. I waited about ten minutes before she sighed, put down the papers, and

wiped her eyes.

"You…You went through all of that?" she asked, her brown eyes boring

into me.

"Yep." I nodded, almost like it was nothing. She smiled a bit and leaned back in her chair.

" I'll send this down in the morning, don't even think about fixing it. Its brilliant." She sighed,

clutching the article for dear life and standing up.

"Thanks Sakura" She said, as she escorted me out of the door.

"I'll see you tomorrow. Your article should be out in the papers by Wednesday. I'll tell

Adam to get me some pics of an orphanage and some kids to go with this and you got

yourself the front page. Good work." She said, stepping into the elevator and waving her

fingers as the door slid to a close. First page. Hells yes! That called for some definite happy

dancing.

* * *

Wednesday rolled around and my stomach was in knots as I was handed my morning

_Times._ A large picture of my orphanage, the one I ran away from, was splattered on the

front page with a headline of " Child Homelessness at large" nice heading. I flipped the paper

out and scanned the page, there it was, my article, graced with pictures of depressed looking

kids and some black bold captions. My story covered two pages and it seemed that no

matter what person I looked at, they were all reading the same article…mine.

Thursday sunk in and the headline of the morning paper read; " Kinomoto article raises

awareness" Um…okay. That's really good, but I never realized that a lil article would cause

two days worth of hubbub. As I flipped through the pages, I came across the Readers

Response section, a few pages dedicated to letters the readers put in, in regards to a certain

article. Most of them had to do with mine. Good lord. Most of them had to do with

commending me on my excellent writing and how much my story touched them. Then there

was one that really caught my eye. It was short, but it made my breath catch in my throat.

_" As I read this article, I smiled at how well she described everything without giving _

_way to the gory details. She probably wont read this, and probably doesn't care but im _

_writing to make it known that 'the leader of the vagabonds' has read it and nearly _

_choked up, which is saying a lot for me. Glad to heat im missed and actually worth _

_looking for._

-Just another Street Rat"

I think I started crying, or it was raining on me only, cause my face was streaked and my

eyes were red. I tucked the paper under my arm and began running as fast as I could down

main street and made my way towards Tomoyo and Eriols apartment.

* * *

_**Woooo… that was a long chapter. But a good one no?? YAY she found Syaoran…**_

_**in a way. They haven't actually seen each other…yet. But she did find Eriol! **_

_**HURRRAHH! Ahh, sorry, im on a sugar high right now. Anywho, review and tell **_

_**me what you think!**_

__

Until Next time!

Ja!

Kirra


	14. Chapter 12: The Photographer

12: The Photographer 

_" As I read this article, I smiled at how well she described everything without giving _

_way to the gory details. She probably wont read this, and probably doesn't care but im _

_writing to make it known that 'the leader of the vagabonds' has read it and nearly _

_choked up, which is saying a lot for me. Glad to heat im missed and actually worth _

_looking for._

-Just another Street Rat"

I think I started crying, or it was raining on me only, cause my face was streaked and my

eyes were red. I tucked the paper under my arm and began running as fast as I could down

main street and made my way towards Tomoyo and Eriols apartment.

* * *

"Just another Street Rat…" Tomoyo repeated, laying the paper across the kitchen table and

sighing.

"Interesting that he would think that a name like that would make us not realize who he is.

Syaoran Li is not an easy person to forget." Eriol said, looking up from the paper. I nodded

in complete agreement.

"So what do you think?" I asked, hoping they might have an idea as to what I should do. They both shrugged. Damn, I hoped they wouldn't.

"Not much you can do, sweetie, and hey, you said yourself that just knowing he's alive was

enough…" Tomoyo said in a comforting tone…well she meant it to be comforting, it didn't

help much though.

"Eh. I suppose your right. He's alive. That's good enough…for now." I muttered, standing

up and downing the rest of my coffee.

"Will you listen to her? For now? What Sakura?? You think he's magically gonna show up

and…and what? Pray tell, im dying to know." Eriol said snidely. Whoo. That was snappy,

what is he jealous that someone might be more gallant than he? I should have blurted that

out, but the last thing I needed this morning was to fight with the people who were providing

me with room and board. I owed them more than what I already was paying them… But I

couldn't complain much because it was cheaper than an apartment in New York. Those

things are PRICY. I sighed and put my cup in the sink.

"I gotta go to work. See you guys later." I said, turning around and heading out the door.

* * *

Work…right. If today's work field required that all you do is sit around and type up simple

stories for about 15 minutes, then fart around for about three more hours and say your doing

work, than by all means, get a job as soon as you can. At 10 bucks an hour for sitting on my

butt, journalism was a pretty cozy job. I couldn't say the same for some of the other people

that worked here, the ones that weren't on the paper. Those like the Photographers.

They're always running to and fro, taking pictures of one thing or another, they remind me

somewhat of worker ants.

I study this particular job because I noticed that there was somebody new today… he must

have replace Lou, who was about three million years old and still working two jobs and

driving. Laci told him that he should quit to savor what little of his health he had left. I

suppose he finally took that idea to heart. This new guy , however, was much younger. He

looked about a couple years older than I, with dark brown hair that was held down under a

baseball cap turned backwards, making his hair stick out at odd ends. He had strange,

yellow brownish eyes… kind of like a topaz, I had seen somewhere before, maybe in a

dream. His skin was a pale color, but he looked well adapted to the outside…and I am

paying WAY too much attention to this guy. I mean, he's just a janitor…but he looks kind of

familiar. Maybe I was in an orphanage with him or something, I dunno. I wasn't gonna sit

here and mull it over. Instead, I thought of something more productive to do with my time;

talk to him.

"Hi!" I called, swiveling in my chair a little. He looked up and shoved a little chunk of hair out

of his eyes.

"Um…hi." he said a few minutes later. Before he said that though, I could have sworn he

said something like "Omygod." under his breath, but what the hell do I know.

"You're new here, aren't you?" I asked, keeping myself busy. He sighed and stood up

straighter, leaning on a desk a little bit.

"Yes…im new here. Replaced Lou on Friday." he said sighing. Ah, I wasn't here on Friday,

Saturday or Sunday, so that's why…

"Hmm. Im Sakura." I said as politely as I could and I managed to get a little grin out of him.

A really familiar grin…

"I know who you are… Im Lee by the way." He said, walking over and shaking my hand.

And now, I am having the weirdest feeling of Déjà vu. I SWEAR I HAVE SEEN THIS

GUY BEFORE. Damn.

"Hey… don't mean to be rude, but do I know you from somewhere?" I called as he was

making his way to the door. He turned around and practically beamed at me.

"Yea…yea you do. " He said. WHAT?? I do?

"I do?? From where! I mean, you look so familiar!" I cried, watching as he tightened his grip

on the trashcan at the fact that I didn't remember…

"Well. You figure it out. We've known each other for a while now." He said, sounding really

depressed. I managed to call out a sorry before he closed the door behind him.

Damn…I'm really confused. I swear I know him, okay, now it's a fact that I do…but I

wouldn't forget somebody like that. Those eyes, you defiantly could never forget. Id have to

mull it over, and fast, because now I feel terrible about not remembering him. Laci came in

around three o clock, with Lee in tow, waltzing right over to my desk…it was creepy the

way she walks. Its more like gliding, because its like, one moment she's there, and then two

seconds later, she's two inches from your face. Highly annoying, but admirable, because

anyone who can 'glide' in four inch heels, gets my sticker of approval.

"Sakura!" she said, sounding genuinely thrilled to see me. I swiveled in my chair and set my

cup of coffee down.

"What's up, Laci?" I asked, my eyes mainly focusing on Lee, trying to figure out where I've

seen him before.

"THIS… is Lee. He replaced Lou." she said, motioning to him. I nodded and smiled.

"Yup, we already met." I said, referring to both times, only the one, I couldn't remember.

"Ah, that makes this easier. Sakura, Your job, whether you choose to accept it or not, it

doesn't matter, your doing it anyways, is to A: Do a hard hitting report on the subject of your

choice, I don't care what it is, as long as its good. And B: You get to show Lee the ropes,

how things work around here and He's going to be doing the photography for your article.

Got it?" she said, pulling up a swivel chair and shoving Lee into it.

"Now then. I have a four thirty appointment with my therapist and if I leave now, I can beat

traffic." she said with a smile and whizzing out the door. Awkward. I never pegged Laci as a

therapy kind of girl, but hey, why not.

"Okay, so that was weird." I mumbled, turning around to face Lee, who was spinning

around much like a small child. Again reminding me of…no, that wouldn't even be possible.

"Okay, so the ropes….right. Its basic and easy. You sit around, pretend like your doing

something while inconspicuously getting something done, just to show that you aren't

completely slacking off. Um, the coffee machine only looks broken, but really, all you have

to do is kick it. It works fine. Ah…um…yea. .. Dammit. Why don't you just out and say

who the hell you are!!" I said, breaking from my tangent and facing him angrily. He grinned

and swiped my coffee, taking a swig and setting it back down.

"Because its more fun this way. And, I always did like it when you were so determined to

figure things out for yourself. Hate to deprive you of the privilege now." he replied snidely.

"That's good coffee, by the way." he said, trying to change the subject.

"Ugh. Cant you just give me hints? A hint? Something??" I pleaded, not helping my case any.

He smiled and nodded.

"Okay. How about this. Ill leave something of significance on your desk until you figure it

out." he proposed. I sighed.

"Fine. Anything's better than nothing. Shake on it though. Don't want you backing out on

me." I said, extending a hand. He smiled and grasped my hand firmly, shaking it once before

letting go, in which he seemed a little hesitant.

* * *

And thus it began. Every day I would come in and find something on the right edge of my

desk, right next to my coffee mug. Yesterday, it was a picture of a boarded up door, the day

before that it was a toothbrush. He had even put a blue ribbon on my desk…which only

reminded me of Suppi, and couldn't think of any other reason as to why he would put that

there, so I figured I must have seen him on the streets. We had met a good amount of kids

on the streets, Syaoran and I, it could have been any one of them. This morning, however,

was something that really hit me hard. It was a picture of the bridge we lived under… the

date of the picture was just a couple of days ago, so the thing was still standing, and exactly

as we left it. The black tarps were still hanging, the rubble was still piled to one side…

everything like Syaoran and I left it. My cheeks grew red and I flushed, not sure why though.

As soon as he came through the door with a cup of coffee and his camera, I frowned and set

the picture down in front of him.

"How do you know about this. Never once did I mention in my article about where we lived,

save a little mention of the house, but I never said anything about a bridge…my bridge…

your not spying on me or anything are you?" I asked angrily, tears welling to my eyes. His

eyes, in turn, grew wide with horror and shook his head.

"NO! No…I…I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, Sakura, know that at least, even if you

don't remember it." he said, shaking his head and rolling backwards. He stood up and

walked away, clearly upset about my little outbreak. He was becoming more and more to

me like Syaoran, but I was refusing to let myself believe that it may be him, they didn't have

the same name… that was the only thing that didn't add up however.

Today I came in and began the waterworks before I even reached my desk. It was easy

to see what was sitting on it today. It was my blanket. The one I had carried around with me

for ages because it was my only tie to my mother. I had lost it when Syaoran and I were

separated…I went back to look for it after I was adopted, but never found it. I snatched it

up from the tabletop and held it close, squeezing my eyes shut to block out the tears. It was

clean, I could tell from the way it smelled, but nobody could tell except for me, and maybe

Syaoran, from the looks of it that it was at some point, a blanket. The floral pattern was long

since faded and dirt and grass stains were irreversibly stuck on there forever. There was a

tear along the bottom from when it had got caught on a trash bin one time, and in the upper

left hand corner I could still see it clearly, is where Syaoran had written his name in black

magic marker, he was teaching me English still, when he wrote that, and was showing me

how to spell his name. It was a bit faded, but still clear enough to see that the scratchy

writing spelled out " Syaoran Li." It was about that time that I got hit in the head with a lead

balloon. I rushed upstairs and darted into Laci's room, where she nearly spat her tea over

the whitewashed wall behind me.

"Sweet Mercy Sakura!! What on earth could possibly be of such importance at eight thirty in

the freaking morning??!" she said, wiping the front of her black blouse with a napkin.

"Lee. Is that his real name??!! I NEED TO KNOW." I said severely. Laci looked up and

nodded.

"Yes…well, its his last name. At least. He said he knew somebody here and wanted to

surprise them, so he was going by his last name." she said, my eyes growing wide

and tearing up.

"And…and how…how does he spell it?" I asked shakily, sliding back against the wall.

" L I, why? Do you know him?" she asked, almost like she was expecting it. I shook my

head and pressed the palms of my hands into my eyes.

"Yea." I whispered, moving my hand to the door and leaving without another word. As soon

as I was down on the second floor, I sped past my desk, and flew into the hallway he always

came from, hoping I could still catch him. As I turned a corner, I slid to a halt as I found I

was standing a few feet away from him.

"I…" I called out, not being able to find the words.

"I'm so sorry." I whispered, more tears forming. He looked up.

"Sorry. Sorry? That may be true, but do you have ANY idea what it feels like to finally find

the person you've been looking for, only to have her not remember who you ARE??!" He

yelled, kicking the nearest trash can and throwing a bundle of papers to the floor. I shook my

head. But I knew something similar.

"Yea, I thought not." he mumbled.

"No. I cant say I do. But I do know what it feels like to fall in live with somebody so badly

that when you lose them, its like your heart gets ripped out! I THOUGHT YOU WERE

DEAD!!" I cried, sinking to the floor. I heard him gasp.

"And you don't know what that's like. Thinking and going on with life, thinking that the only

person you ever loved is DEAD. Im sorry. Its been 15 years. Cut me some slack." I said,

drawing my voice to a whisper, watching my tears splat against the floor. Before I knew it,

he was beside me, wrapping his arms around my shoulder. I grabbed onto his jacket tightly,

almost like, if I let go, he would disappear.

"I love you too." he whispered, It was my turn to gasp now, but in relief…or something. I

couldn't really call it that, it was one of those ' everything's okay' gasps. I pulled away &

wiped my eyes on my sleeve, my other hand still clinging to his leather jacket. He looked

down and grinned at me. Something I never thought I'd see again. "Hi." he said flatly. I

laughed, sitting up straighter and switching my hand from his jacket to the floor next to his

hand.

"hey" I replied, getting a grin out of him. He stood up and immediately extended his hand to

help me up. I took it happily and hopped up to my feet, getting wrapped in another embrace

as soon as my feet touched ground. He shifted so that his arm was wrapped around my

waist and we began walking down the hallway.

"Sorry it took so long" I said, regarding both the figuring out it was him and the whole

finding him thing. He shrugged and kissed the top of my head.

"Don't worry about it." he said with a laugh. I sighed, extremely content and looked up at

him, still marveling that he was here. He looked down and grinned.

"What?" he asked. I shrugged.

"Nothing…im just, contemplating whether to kill you for putting me through such hell…" I

said nonchalantly, smiling mischievously.

"Oh? Kill me then? Well then where would you be?" he asked, pulling away from me with a

mock surprised look.

"Well…I've gone 15 years without you, im sure I could manage.." I laughed, attempting to

run when he grabbed me around the waist and spinning me around. When I landed, we were

about inches apart and both panting heavily, both from laughter

.  
"Yes, but now that you've found me, I cant imagine you'd want to leave me to rot

somewhere, by your own hand nonetheless…" he said, inching his face closer, so close in

fact that I could feel his breath on my lips.

"Ehh…" I joked, with a shrug. He growled playfully and pressed his lips against mine.

Something I had been waiting for for so long, it was nothing like I had expected. I felt my

arms wrap around his neck and his hands slide around my waist, but other than that, I

couldn't feel anything save for the complete and unadulterated euphoria that was created just

then.

* * *

_**Allrighhtyy. Theres chapter 12!! HOORAAHHHH!!!!!! Throw the confetti and pop **_

_**open the kegs ladies and gents!!!! THEYRE TOGETHER!!! YESH…. I know. I **_

_**know. Long time coming eh? Okay then, whilst you go about being as ecstatic as I **_

_**am, leave a review and ill see you next time!**_

__

Ja!

Kirra

Chappy 13 up soon!


	15. Chapter 13: Reunion

**_Sorry it took so long to update guys! Last couple of weeks of school were a killer. Finals _**

**_are this week, so im tryin to update before I go into "Cram mode". Anywho... enjoy!_**

_**Oh, yea, Sakura had a reason for being slow on figuring him out. She never knew his last **_

_**name well. She always called him Syaoran and his last name was like, stored away in the **_

_**file folders of her brain, collecting dust... Plus, she thought the spelling was "Lee" **_

_**instead of "Li" but she was a tad it slow...oh well.**_

Chapter 13: Reunion

That week, I don't think Syaoran and I ever left each others line of vision, I ended staying at his

place...using one excuse or another on Tomoyo and Eriol. I didn't want to tell them Syaoran and I

had found each other just yet, that could wait till later tonight. We were planning on surprising

them...sort of. Anyways. It was about 6:00 on Friday when we both clocked out, figuring if we

made it back before Tomoyo or Eriol, then we would double our "Shock Factor" expectancy.

However, leaving New York City at six was probably not the best of ideas. It took well near an

hour to get to Eriol's house, luckily, they weren't home yet. The two of them were an hour late. So

we got pretty bored. We kind of just planned to be sitting on the couch talking, but since they were

so freaking late, we got to playing a game of Parcheesi I found stored away in the closet. So, you

can imaging their expressions when they walked in, baggage in hand and hats lopsided from the

wind, seeing their roommate and a supposed dead person sitting in the middle of the living room

floor, challenging one another with witty banter and the fact that I was basically handing his ass to

him on a silver platter. I forgot to mention that I rock at this game. Oops. But im veering from the

fact that both of them simultaneously dropped their bag, threw their hats on the ground and blurted

out:

"OH...MY...GOD..."allowing a three second interval, because if they were dead on with the timing,

I would be thoroughly creeped out. Tomoyos mouth fell open and her eyes grew to about the size

of a grapefruit.

"Oh...hey guys, You remember Syaoran, don't ya?" I said sarcastically. He grinned

and scratched the back of his head. Only for a moment though because it was about that time that

Tomoyo barreled him over and knocked him flat on his back. I laughed and stood up, prying

Tomoyo off of Syaoran, who I think was mumbling some plea along the lines of

"please...get...heroff...ofme." however, most of this was muffled by Tomoyos shoulder. Finally, she

stood up and wiped her eyes.

"We thought we'd never see you again!" she whispered, just loud enough to be audible. Then she

frowned and slugged him in the shoulder.

"WHY did you do that!!?? Do you have any idea how worried we were???!" she screeched,

throwing her arms in the air. Syaoran looked...scared...it was kind of funny though.

"Sheez...sorry Mom...I'll remember to check in the next time we're four minors living on the

streets." he said rubbing his shoulder. Eriol smiled and clapped him on the back. The calmest

reaction out of all of us, I noticed.

"Good to see ya man... how ya been?" he asked, sitting down on the couch, the rest of us following

in suit. He shrugged.

"Good, actually. But, like every normal person, ups and downs...and ups..." he said, glancing my

way quickly.

"don't I know it." Eriol said, nodding. "So, what happened to you, after everyone got taken? Come

on, out with it!" Tomoyo asked enthusiastically. He laughed and sighed, leaning back on the couch a

bit. "Okay...lets see here..."he said, trying to find a good place to start. "Okay. Um...after you guys

got taken, It was just Sakura and I, we tried everything to keep away from the cops, but it didn't

really work. We had gone back to the bridge, they found us and well, we all know how that turned

out... The gunshot was just to startle us, but it did allow for rocks to topple down, one hitting

Sakura on the head, giving the other guy leave to whap me with the end of his gun. I woke up in an

Orphanage a few days later." he said, looking around as everyone stared at him intently, including

myself. "I stayed in the orphanage for a little while, working there and earning enough money to

head out on my own, I was eighteen by then, and they legally couldn't keep me, even though I think

they wanted to. Anyways, I found a job at a grocery store for a while, long enough to pay rent on

the apartment I got with the money from the Orphanage. Then, I got a job offer from some big

cheese kind of guy who worked in the 'retail business'...it was only until two weeks after he hired

me, on my first day there, that I found out that he worked for the mob...yes, there is still a mob...so

I left, as soon as I could muster up the courage, explaining that I didn't know what I was getting into

and was begging that he not kill me. Strangely enough, he understood and let me go, but I think

somebody still keeps tabs on me, just incase... but that's besides the point..." he said, turning his

attention quickly to me, who was gawking incredulously. "You got mixed up with the _mob_??" I

asked, completely confused.

"Uhh...yea, but on accident." he said.. Anyways. I got a job at Tiffany's as a...um...one of them

people who show potential buyers the really expensive stuff... that is, until I read Sakura's article in

the paper. I seriously, no lie, started to cry. I had myself believing that I would never see her again,

that she had gone somewhere so far away that you'd have never even known it existed, that I just

was...in denial for a while, thinking things like 'oh, that's not her...couldn't be... 'and things like that.

But then I decided to find out if I was right. So I sent that letter to the paper, then took the next

available job they had open, which was the photography job. I decided to use my last name only, in

case I was completely wrong and it wasn't her. But I was right, though she only knew me as 'Lee'or

something...it was funny really, pretending that we had just met for a while...then, after about a week

or so, she figured it out. And that's it..." he finished. I looked at the two opposite us, staring

awkwardly and trying to grasp it all. I, for some reason, understood it perfectly.

"So...you...I...wow." Tomoyo stuttered, piecing it all together. Eriol nodded slowly as if playing

everything over in his brain, though there wasn't much to replay, it was pretty simple to me.

"Dude...some title you made for yourself. Anything else you'd like to share with us while your on a

roll?" he asked, trying to wriggle back into his best friends life best as he could. "Well...I was

captured by a band of pirates just north of Florin and became, somehow, the next Dread Pirate

Roberts...but other than that...no." he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. We all laughed, allowing

the night to carry on well into the early morning.

By the time we covered everything from our favorite movies, to...every other topic on the face of

the earth, a bottle of whiskey had been round several times and we were all laughing ourselves silly

about absolutely nothing. Curse the affects of alcohol. Not to say we didn't have fun, but by the time

we were through, everyone was borderline completely sloshed and passed out...which is what

happened a few moments later. Tomoyo toppled onto Eriol and began drooling, muttering

something about apricots, Eriol was long gone, his head flopped onto his shoulder, one eye closed,

the other opened, but rolled into the back of his head. Syaoran had fallen off the couch a while back

and was curled up against the end table where as I, the only one who could hold her alcohol well,

was taking very embarrassing snapshots of each other that I will undeniably use in a scandalous

attempt to annoy the hell out of them and remind them never to get drunk, ever again.

* * *

The hangovers, for the three of them, were worth it. Tomoyo was actually pretty funny hung-over, 

she acted somewhat like a small child who couldn't get her own way. Eriol just kind of slugged

around, running into things and grunting, very Neanderthalic of him. Syaoran, lucky him, didn't hav

a hangover, which is weird. But I appreciated the fact that he let me lay my head on his shoulder all

day because I fear if I moved it, the throbbing would begin all over again.

That weekend was basically getting back in order for the coming Monday. Saturday, we slummed

off the headaches general feelings of 'dear lord, just kill me now's. Sunday, Tomoyo and I went

shopping, figuring that was better than lazing around in the backyard, watching the neighbors kids

run around in circles, screaming at each other. Then, Monday came. And for a reason we all can

appreciate, it felt more tolerable and I liked the fact that my eight and a half hour workday,

sometimes including overtime, was comprised of sitting at my desk, pretending to do work, while

simultaneously playing pong against Syaoran, who was at his computer two desks away. And to

think I used to say I didn't get paid enough for this. Come seven thirty, Syaoran had sent me a

message saying to take the day off the next day, because he wanted to show me something.

However, that something was kept secret for a while...until my super sleuth skills confronted my

morals and told me to find out what the hell was up before I went crazy. It turned out that he was

taking me to dinner...on a yacht, right off the New York Harbor. Which, even though I knew about

it without his knowledge, I still squealed at and jumped around like a fat kid confronted by the

worlds best baker...only that kid was wearing stiletto heels and a black dress that came two inches

short of her knees. Oh the analogies one comes up with when hyper...

* * *

_**Okay, short chapter, but fun, id say!! Huzzah! Anywho, I may be a little delayed in the **_

_**next update, im not sure, I have a lot of things to do with this school group thing im in **_

_**the first couple of weeks of break. So yea, hope you enjoyed it and review If you can! Id **_

_**love to hear what you got to say!**_

__

Until Next Time!


	16. Chapter 14: Curtain Call

_**Hey all! Sorry for the delay, I was pretty busy for a while and then my mom did a system restore on our computer and I lost all of my fanfics. Blech. Ah well, Que sera sera. Anywho. This chapter... is the last one. I know. Well, I want it to be the last one, but who knows. I might not be able to fit all I have planned into one chapter. Anyway. Oh! Um, I started writing an original story!! Its pretty cool, I've got about two chapters up right now. If you want to read it, got to and look for Inuismyhomeboi...the search results will come out as -KirraHazayaki- That's me! Um, leave a review and tell me what you think! Don't mind chapter twos typos, something was wrong with my compy when I was editing it. Alrighty then... I suppose that's all. On with the story!**_

Chapter 13: Curtain Call

Syaoran slammed the door to the apartment and shuffled in, apparently miffed at something. I frowned, a bit concerned seeing as when I last saw him, 20 minutes ago, he was unbearably excited about something that he wouldn't tell me.

"Um...hallo there. What's wrong with you?" I asked. He looked up at me, like he was unusually pissed, then broke into this huge grin.

"Nuthin... just playing around" He chuckled, hugging me lightly and gliding over to the Kitchen, literally, it was a glide... like a dance or something. He was weird.I've known him practically all my life, and I still don't understand the man. I shook my head and sighed.

"Whatever... so what are you so excited about anyways??" I asked, wiping down the counter where I had some chicken earlier. He shrugged.

"I told you... I cant tell you. it's a surprise...the only possible way I could tell you was if you let me blindfold you and whisk you off to some very random location." he said suspiciously. Creepy? Yes, but I was too eager to find out to care.

"hmm...okay. Where's the blindfold?" I asked, very nonchalantly...I love taking people off guard. He stared at me incredulously.

"Seriously??" he asked, taken back a bit by my interest in being blindfolded and whisked off somewhere random. He smiled and pulled a dark blue piece of fabric from his back pocket...my, how convenient...

"You DO know what I'm planning to do right??" he asked me as he tied the cloth around my eyes.

"No, elaborate on that, would you?" I said as he tightened the bond.

"You don't know what I'm doing, yet you trust me..." he said, completely confused.

"Yup...now what are you doing?" I asked, turning in the direction I thought he was in. he sighed and turned my stance a little, I guess I wasn't facing him before.

" I'm going to drop you in a random location...and send you on a scavenger hunt. When you find me, you'll get the prize."

"there's a Prize??" I asked, surprised a bit. I guess he nodded, because he didn't say anything.

"Yup. Now come on." he said, taking my hand and leading me out of the house.

* * *

When I took the blindfold off, I was standing in the middle of a creek, suspended on a rather slippery rock. Yes...that was about as random as he could get. However, after about the third turn around in a smallish circle, I noticed the creek was far too familiar. It was the Bridges creek. Not something many people recognize, but when you use said creek for everyday things for about 5 years, talk to me and we'll get all nostalgic about our creek-using experiences that we shant ever forget.

I smiled as I skipped from large, slippery rock to the next, until I made it under the bridge. The tarp still hung on one side, suspended there by fifteen year old ropes and some moldy rocks, and lodged under a large round rock I think I may have used as a pillow in my younger days, was a very crisp, clean and new looking envelope. I rolled the rock off of it and picked up the paper. Flipping the top open and pulling the contents out, I unfolded the paper and began to read;

_"Hey! Your reading this, so I guess you figured out the random place I dropped you. Good. Now, what I want you to do, is get away from the bridge and go find Mike the Hot Dog vendor. He'll tell you what to do next. But keep in mind that there are about 50 hot dog vendors, just on Market Street...Good Luck!  
Love ya!  
-Syaoran"_

I snorted and rolled my eyes. Great, how on earth am I supposed to find this Mike fella? Oh well. Best not to tarry any longer. Getting to my next destination was easy, the note clearly said Market Street. But turning on to said street brought and onslaught of vendors. Ouch. So, one by one, I ran up to vendors, screaming as hard as I could with what little breath I had 'are YOU Mike??' then left, dismayed slightly. Finally, Vendor number 45 was my guy. He smiled and nodded.

"Depends on who's asking. You Sakura?" He asked. Mike was a burly gentleman, who smelled of fancy mustard and sweat. He wore a paper hat and a very stained used-to-be-white shirt. It was now a dingy brown.

"Yesss" I sighed, obviously exasperated. He smiled a semi-toothless smile, which brought back the memory...and with it, the reason why I had to find this particular man. He was the first guy I stole from successfully. If I remember correctly, I made up some excuse that my father would hurt me if I didn't bring back food, which I had lost the money to pay for with. He chuckled and handed me a hot dog, topped with everything, and a very large beverage, hopefully highly caffeinated.

"I remember you. Good to see you clean..." he said, doting on my obvious hygienic well-being. I smiled.

"You as well. How much for the Buddha Dog and glorious beverage?" I asked, pulling out my wallet. He shook his head;

"Already taken care of. Good luck on your hunt." he said as I nodded gratefully and pulled the wrapping off of my dog. Of course, there was writing on it:

_" Enjoying your dog? Good. Now then. Whilst you feast happily, I want you to make a left onto east 153rd and go until you reach Shanghai's Sushi Bar and Taco Emporium. Once you get there, turn right until you reach the dumpster...its about 3 feet in front of you. You'll find the next clue there.- Love Syaoran"_

Ew...Dumpster Diving wasn't something high on my list of priorities today. Nevertheless, I went there. Growing more and more Nostalgic, I realized that Syaoran was making me go everywhere that we went together. Granted, everywhere we went was grubby and due to hunger, we would have never gone there otherwise, but it was, for all intents and purposes, to me, very...very Syaoran. It was his very strange way of doing something romantically. After all, all the letters were signed off with love or something of the sort. I couldn't help but get energetic off of that.

The dumpster reeked. It was horrible. Aged meat and fish carcasses were not very pleasant to inhale. But luckily, no garbage expeditions were required. The note was duct taped to the lid. I peeled it off carefully and opened it. There was nothing really. It simply said:

_"Turn around...keep walking. Find the white rows."_ And thus, I was more confused than I think I have ever been this night. But I did as instructed. I turned around and ran straight. And kept running. And running...until I was certain there was nowhere left to run. As I slowed to a halt, I spun around in a small circle until my eyes fell on two brick walls that made a path into Central Park, completely covered in white roses. Tucked inside a large group of then, was a red envelope. Grabbing it quickly, I pulled out the white paper inside and sighed.

_"Haha. Fun, right? Sorry for exhausting you so much. Anywho, not much left now. I need you to take a left and walk until you find The House. You know which one. Love-x-Infinity... Yes, that WAS cheesy, but im running out of fun things to write!!! -Sniff-  
-You-Know-Who (NO!! Not that one!!)"_

I laughed and turned left, tucking the note in my bag with the rest of them. I ran briskly until I skidded to a sharp halt in front of the still condemned house. The windows and doors had been re-covered with thick two-by-fours, but the back door hung open loosely. I squeezed my way past the furniture blocking the door and hopped to the floor about a foot below me. I walked into the room where we all used to stay, I looked around for some clues. Taped to the mantle above the fireplace, was another note. I picked it off the wall and smiled.

_"This is the last one! YAY! Okay. Lets see how good your memory is...go to the corner of Huxley and Bourque. Ill be there by the Green mailbox. -Syaoran."_ I frowned and began wracking my brain for what that place held. But it struck me like a lead balloon and I rushed out of the house with as much gusto as I could muster. I sprinted down the street and skidded around corners until I came to a dead halt. He was leaning against the mailbox, reading a magazine and checking his watch periodically. I slowed down to a trot and attempted to catch my breath as I slid up behind him. I saw his face distort into a smile as he turned around on his heel.

"Hey. Have any fun?" he asked as he wrapped me in a quick hug and stared me in the eyes.

"Yes, actually I did. Got me a free Buddha Dog an' everything. Although I must admit, you, my dear, have one hell of a memory." I sighed, leaning into his shoulder. He laughed.

"apparently you do too. But do you remember here??" he asked hopefully. I nodded and grinned.

"Well, yea. Its where we met." I said with an obvious tone. He smiled and nodded.

"Good. Now come here..." he said, leading me to a bench. I sat down cross legged and stared at him.

" ...My name is Syaoran Li. I'm 25 years old, 26 in November. I work for the _New York Times_ as a Photographer and am known to all who know me as an orphan. But in truth, I do have a family, I just choose to stay away from them. They actually consider me dead. I ran away from them in China when I discovered that we were actually part of the equivalence of the Chinese Mafia. They said they wouldn't come after me, but I was dead to them. When I was nine, I met my best friend Eriol, who truly was orphaned after a house fire, and in turn we met Tomoyo and Takashi. When I was 11, I met the girl I knew I would wind up spending the rest of my life with right here there at the mailbox. She had stolen a sub and was unfortunately caught. Nearly 20 years later and a ten year lapse of depression from not seeing her, I found her again and did everything in my power to get her back. I did." He said, taking my hand through the middle of it all. I blinked in confusion, not really sure what to say about his life story.

"wow. But why are you telling me this??" I asked, irrevocably confused. He laughed mirthfully and sighed.

"Because, I wanted you to know who I was before I asked you the most important thing I will ever ask..." he said, pulling out a small black box from his pocket and falling to one knee. It was then that my heart stopped and my lungs decided to fail. A swarm of butterflies crashed into the pit of my stomach and my eyes watered uncontrollably. "...Marry me, Sakura." he said in a low voice. I gasped.

" My name is Sakura Kinomoto, I'm 24, 25 in December. When I was five, I told my friend Toya that I had three big toes and a tail, which I his in my pants. He believed me. When I was 9, I was orphaned and sent to New York, in order to find a family. I never did... that is until, I met a boy a few years older than me, who helped me and my stolen sub make a run for it after I tripped and fell. From then on, I stayed with him and his group of vagabond orphans, who turned out to be the best people I could ever meet. It was when I was ten that I fell in love with my savior. But I never got the chance to tell him until fifteen years later and a ten year gap where we never saw each other. I was adopted by wonderful people and have a step sister who I love to death, even though she isn't born yet. I have been known to talk nonsensical things in my sleep, and have been told that there is no person that has ever loved someone more than myself and that boy. I work at the _New York Times_, where I am a journalist. It turns out that the photographer that I work with is that boy, and I love him insanely..." I said, most of that in one breath. He raised an eyebrow and looked up at me. "I wanted to tell you who I was before I said yes." I said, falling on top of him and hugging him until I don't think he could breathe anymore. He could, I guess, and he slid a small, but absolutely gorgeous ring around my finger and smiled before catching me off guard with a kiss.

* * *

_It turns out that he did, in fact ask me to jump off a bridge, but attached to very secure ropes. We went bungee jumping while in Ireland on our honeymoon. We got married in December, two weeks after my birthday, on the 24th, Christmas Eve. It was a small wedding, but that's what we liked about it, not many people to fuss over us, and vice versa. Next week, we'll be celebrating our 2 year anniversary. It was peculiar, when I was younger, I never thought about any of this, I thought I would be alone forever. But I was wrong. And everything that I was afraid would never happen, happened. Which is strange and slightly ironic. Anywho, I remember a while back, Syaoran asked me if I could go back in time, would I change anything. I shook my head and told him no...cause if I never got stuck here, I never would have met him. Or if my mom never died, we'd be happy in New York, and I still wouldn't have met him and the people I call family. I don't regret any of it, don't want to change any of it. And 5 years and nine months from now, Syaoran and I will hold no shame when we tell that little boy or girl that her parents met on the streets. Because there's no point in hiding the greatness that is the truth, now is there?_

_That"s my story. I told you it would be worth it. Now, don't go getting inspired and become an orphan or a runaway yourself. You saw first hand how bad it is...but at the same time, how great and wonderful it can turn out. Now go off and show this to your kids. Maybe someday, when this book is long since gone from whatever list it made, people will look at it and go ' hot damn, that chick went through a lot. Good for her!!' I'd Like that...a lot.  
_

I closed my laptop after the printing began, and waited until the last of ten page spat out. I stapled the top and slid it into a stamped Manila envelope, then trudged outside and dropped it into the green mailbox outside of our apartment. Syaoran had suggested, a while back that I write our tale and make it a book. I thought it was a dumb idea, until my boss at the Times said that she knew a publisher who would gladly take in my 'incredible and awe inspiring story'. So I did. I just mailed off the last chapter to my editor, who, in turn will give it to the publishing company after checking it over, and next year, my first book; "A Place to Call Home" will hit bookstores nationwide. Cool huh? Yea, I thought so too.

* * *

_**Thats it!!! ITS DONE!!!!!! Does a happy dance woo!! I am terribly proud of this feat, and will celebrate by...eating lunch and playing Star Ocean. Yes, that sounds good. Anywho, I suppose I owe a quick disclaimer here. I don't own Harry Potter. I made a quick reference, if you managed to catch it. But anyways. I am DONE!! With this one at least. What's coming next?? Only time will tell. Until said time, thank you EVER so much for sticking with this crazy author, I greatly appreciate it...and am terribly enthralled that you all enjoyed it so much! So...Until Next Time, in another story,  
Ja Ne!  
-Kirra**_


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